Dragon's Keep
by Werewolfhunter16
Summary: Dragon's Keep has recently become a terror on the magic world. They don't really care who you are or what you want. If you're in their way they will destroy you without hesitation. While they only consist of five members, though no one believes they're all dragon slayers, they're regarded to be just as big of a threat as any of the Balam Alliance members. And they're making a move.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: First off, I'd like to apologize for any bad writing, I haven't done this in a little while and that probably shows. Second, I'd like everyone to know the changes I made to this AU.**

 **1\. Sting and Rogue's ages are bumped up since I think they would be canonically Wendy's age before the seven year time skip.**

 **2\. I also upped Wendy's age as well since twelve seems a bit young to be doing hardcore dark wizardry. You know like killing people.**

 **3\. There will be arcs in here that aren't part of Fairy Tail. I'll make them up on my own though there won't be very many that I promise. You know unless you guys really like them then maybe more.**

 **4\. Lisanna didn't actually get sucked into Edolas. No magic plot device that brings back a character no one really asked to be brought back. Instead she's alive for reasons I haven't completely figured out yet.**

 **5\. Natsu's kind of an evil asshole for now unless you don't attack him or are in Dragon's Keep. Other than you're fair game. Life and all.**

 **That's pretty much it that won't spoil anything in the future. Anyway, please enjoy this first chapter and leave a review if you enjoyed or wish to flame me. Both work. It's not like I'm desperate for attention or anything.**

* * *

Today was a special day, one for all of magic kind. No, there was no special event honoring a birth of magic or anything of the sort. Today was simply a special day for the safety of the magic world. For today was the date of an extremely dangerous criminal and renowned dark mage's execution. And this mage went by the name of Red Dragon.

Normally, he would be far too difficult to catch through any means of the council on its own. The only way the magic council saw a way to capture this criminal would be through sheer numbers. But with the luck of a god, as some would call it, Siegrain Fernandez and his entire regiment of the Detention Corps had come upon the aftermath of the destruction of an entire village. And the exhausted body of the very man they were hunting.

But this itself raised more questions. Who could exhaust the mighty Red Dragon besides a saint wizard? Even Siegrain himself, who was a saint wizard, was uncertain of how he would fair against the power that the Red Dragon possessed. But eventually the matter was swept under the rug in favor of punishing Red Dragon for his many crimes. Which ranged from petty theft all the way to whole sale man slaughter.

Needless to say, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. But he had been on death row for quite some time now…

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XXXXX

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But outside the city, there was a particular group of nefarious mages. Though they were only two members of a much more deadly group. A single glance would have any mage worth their salt salivating at their immense bounties. As well as running for the hills in fear of their reputation alone.

One of the two men was standing near the top of a tree to see over the capital city's walls. He had short spiky blond hair with a oval shaped head that fit well with his hair. He wore a thin white jacket with dark blue trimmings running along its edges that he left open revealing his well toned and powerful musculature. His eyes, though covered right now by a pair of high powered binoculars, were a dull blue that had seen its fair share of destruction. Though beneath them was a surprising light to his eyes.

The other one was simply observing the city and attempting to memorize the city from afar was almost the complete opposite. He had slightly more tame jet black hair that covered his right eye. He wore a simple black undershirt that was covered by a red and black cloak with gold trimmings. His eyes were a vibrant black, but lacked the mysterious light in his eyes which instead had a seemingly endless void in its place.

The two of them had repeatedly been observing the city in anticipation of the Red Dragon's execution. The blond man sighed out of boredom, leaning back casually against the bark of the tree. "Today is actually the day right? You're reliable source hasn't been reliable whatsoever lately." He said with an irritated tone.

The black haired one suppressed a twitch in his left eye at the question he'd been asked at least a dozen times. "I've told you my reliable source is the newspaper how many times? If anything, this recent push for Red Dragon's execution is going to end up forcing the council to make a statement. And I believe that day is today." He said while he did his best to keep his annoyance out of his tone.

But his bored partner picked up on the feelings of his companion. "I'm sorry." He began with a small mocking tone in his voice. "But I'm sick to death of waiting up here and staring at this boring ass town all day. I need to do something interesting before I snap!"

The black haired man did not suppress his twitch this time and merely groaned. "You're annoying beyond the normal means of the word. Was it not your fault we're here in the first place?"

Those words seemed to freeze the blond haired man on the spot. The accusation had actually made him begin sweating a little. He simply continued to observe the town and refused to answer the question. The black haired man smiled at his friend's reaction and let the matter drop before continuing to observe the city with him.

"Oi." The air of partially poking fun at each other suddenly vanished as the blond haired man suddenly spoke. "It's time. Looks like they're starting." He finished, jumping down from the treetop and handing his friend the binoculars.

The black haired man took them and observed the city center where his partner had pointed. Sure enough, the magic council seemed to be mobilizing. But something else caught his attention at the same time, something that may have been even more important.

"We may have a problem." He began cryptically, lowering the binoculars and handing them back to his partner. "Makarov Dreyar is in the city."

"Your joking." The blond haired man said in a slightly worried tone. After double checking his partner's find he threw the binoculars over his shoulder and punched a nearby tree in frustration. Had he not been trying carefully concealing his presence he would have punched straight through the tree and perhaps knocked down part of the forest. But since he needed to be hidden he held back.

"Great. That means master will need to get involved. Two saint wizards might be too much. Even for all five of us." The blond said in exasperation, before sticking his hands in his pockets and sighing.

"Oh well, let's just deal with it as it comes. Ready?" The blond haired man asked his friend.

His friend merely nodded his head and the two began walking towards the capital of Fiore.

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XXXXX

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How long had he been in here? He could only guess, he'd been thrown in this cell sometime before the New Year's celebration festival. But even that had been some time ago. His best estimate was probably somewhere around an entire year here. In this dark, decrepit, and utterly disgusting cell. With its constantly dripping water and foul smelling, and tasting, food. Bound to the wall by magic restraining cuffs, blindfolded, and barely fed enough food and water to survive. Even the water seemed to hate him and would always drip irregularly and it was maddening. The only possession he still had on him was a next to worthless silver band around his right ring finger. Which he would constantly find himself running his thumb over.

But out of pure spite to his captors, which he found great joy in doing seeing as how much it irked them, every time he heard them he gave them the biggest and most pleasant smile he could. But it had basically no effect over the last couple of days.

 _'Or maybe weeks?'_ He added as an afterthought. He really found it hard to tell what time of day it was with a blindfold on twenty four hours a day. Half the time he found himself falling asleep and waking up completely unaware that he had just done so.

But he was able to figure out what the lack of anger from his captors meant over the last few days from the whispers of the guards who thought he couldn't hear them. His execution date was coming up, and from what he heard, it was today.

For the first time in a while, he felt himself dropping his smile. Just because he was so damn tired. Sleeping did nothing to alleviate this tiredness though. _'I wonder what I should say in my last moments? Should I say something funny? Should I repent? Should I cry and beg for forgiveness?'_ His thoughts circled like this for some time, going over what he believed to be the best options going forward. But in the end he smiled.

 _'I guess when I die, thirty or forty years from now I should say something absolutely worthless.'_ Sometime later, he had fallen asleep and was awoken by a vicious slap across his cheek.

"Morning Doranbolt!" He said cheerily. Earning displeased frown that he couldn't see. To his surprise though, the man named Doranbolt removed his blindfold. Leaving him blinking at nothingness since he hadn't actually used his eyes for a good period of time.

"It's the afternoon Red Dragon. Take him down. The people want their execution and they will get it." Doranbolt said with a glare of utter disgust towards the mage that was chained towards the wall. Doranbolt was a man with quite short black hair, a scar in a cross shape on his left cheek. And was a decent position in the Detention Corps of the magic council, of course he never actually knew what position Doranbolt held because he didn't care.

"Today is the day I die eh? Well what way am I going to die? When is my last meal? I'm pretty damn hungry." He asked lazily, he was more than ready to break out during any moment, he just needed to get just a little space between him and Doranbolt who could teleport him straight into an enchantment where he would be paralyzed. If he could do that then he'd be fine.

"You get no last meal. Mass murderers like you get their heads lopped off after they've been stripped of everything they took from their victims." Doranbolt said angrily. Without another word, he'd been bound tighter and more restrictive than he thought was possible. Before he was led forcibly towards the exit.

That…threw a wrench in his escape plans. He was strong enough to break his restraints, but not the ones he was now in. And if he couldn't use his magic then he could only brute force his way through so many council grunts before Siegrain came down on him like a wolf attacking a wounded rabbit. On top of all that, Doranbolt kept a vice like grip on his arm. He'd lose his arm before Doranbolt let go.

 _'Shit…I might actually die here. What the hell am I going to do?'_ He was actually beginning to panic. He kept himself calm by thinking he could always escape due to the regular rights he had as a death row prisoner. He ground his teeth in frustration, he didn't actually have any escape routes. If he didn't think of anything…

His train of thought was interrupted as he was dragged out of the dark dungeons and through the council walls. And when he was finally outside he was completely blinded by the sunlight he hadn't seen in so damn long.

 _'Oh my…that sun is incredibly painful to look at.'_ He'd suddenly found himself outside and staring down the streets filled with angry pedestrians throwing many painful objects at his withered and malnourished body. He was particular shaken when a full beer bottle cracked him in the temple. He really was out of time now. He needed to think of something right now.

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Makarov watched with a drunken, but very observant eye. He watched as a nearly dead man was dragged through the streets and beset by a mob of furious citizens. They wanted their own form of justice as well as the execution that Red dragon was about to suffer. Of the thousands of people there to watch this infamous criminal die, he was one maybe about two people who knew this man's true name. And most likely the only one who felt personally responsible for Red Dragon's acts.

He sighed a sigh fill of regret as he remembered that day all those years ago. How he'd found a lost, terrified, and crying child in the middle of a dangerous forest. How he had personally cared for the child, gave him basic knowledge in the way that the world worked. And gave him a new path to walk and hopefully find his father that had left him. He was still confused at the child's words when he'd offered to take him in at his guild.

 _"Thanks old man. But I don't think that life is right for me."_

 _"Even though you have such great potential? Do you truly wish to go all over the world alone?"_

 _"Yeah, but I'll always remember you and your kindness old man. But I don't want to be a mage, honestly I hate them. But I like you."_

 _"Why do you hate mages?"_

 _"They took my world from me."_

And just like that, he was gone; leaving Makarov with only the small hope filled grin that he would eventually find his father. Makarov never understood how mages stole his world, he'd never know now. For he had never heard from him again until ten years later when he found out he had become a dark mage.

When he found the wanted poster and saw the crimes he had committed, Makarov sobbed. There in the middle of the street he sobbed all of the regret he'd felt over the years until his son Laxus had found him and brought him back to their home.

He watched solemnly and silently as Red Dragon was marched to his death. _'Perhaps this is for the best Natsu. Maybe now his victims can rest and my mistake can be redeemed for.'_

While he watched, he was surprised when Red Dragon's face changed from one of great concentration to sudden realization when his eyes landed on Makarov. Red Dragon closed his eyes and looked down at the ground for a moment before he looked back at Makarov with the same smile he left him with all those years ago.

With just that smile, Makarov understood what he was saying. He turned and walked away from the execution scene. He'd gotten what he wanted from the man and he frowned as he left. He'd take every crime he committed straight to the grave without an ounce of regret. That hope filled child he'd seen died long ago, and what was in his place was a monster. He had no more reason to feel guilty.

But for some reason he stopped walking away. Something was off, Red Dragon was far too calm for someone about to be executed. Even someone that insane should realize that they're running out of time right? He should be at least panicked. What made him feel so uneasy?

"RED DRAGON!" A powerful yell echoed over the entire town's cries. Everyone's yells and cries slowly turned to whispers and murmurs as everyone stared in confusion towards the newcomer that blocked the Rune Knights from progressing any further towards the execution platform.

It didn't take long for the councilman to piece together who exactly was standing in front of them. The blond hair, casual stance, and general air of cockiness. Well, all that and being the spitting image of another highly wanted criminal.

"White Dragon! Everyone evacuate immediately!" Doranbolt ordered this immediately, but most of the populace had already begun to flee. Loud cries of terror greeted Makarov in a huge tidal wave and he dragged off with the mob who had assumed he was some random old man.

"Yeah that's my name." White Dragon said casually, spotting with the corner of his eye his partner slipping into position.

Doranbolt positioned himself behind Red Dragon and placed a knife at his throat. Also ordering his troops to surround White Dragon. "You are obviously here for Red Dragon. But if you make a single move his life will end right now."

White Dragon yawned loudly. Irritating Doranbolt with his utter disrespect. "You look like shit master. Like worse than you regularly do."

Red Dragon rolled his eyes. "Ha. Ha. Ha. That's so funny I forgot to laugh."

White Dragon blinked in minor confusion. "But you did laugh."

Red Dragon growled. "Oh for Kami's sake, one of you two free me already."

Doranbolt seemed confused. "What do you mean two of you? There is only one dragon here."

Red Dragon stared him dead in the eyes. "You seriously didn't notice the other one behind you about to knock you the fuck out?"

Doranbolt disregarded his statement after looking behind him. "As if there would be three of the dragons all here together. You bluff."

"Yeah master. He's wrong it's not just me and Black Dragon. All of us are here." White Dragon clarified matter-of-factly. Though he seemed to be getting more and more excited as time passed.

Doranbolt suddenly felt an immense magical presence just behind him. But even though he checked again. There was nothing. But just the threat of all five of the dragons being in one location was terrifying. He had no idea the kind of destruction they could cause.

"If you're going to stop Black Dragon, you really should look at your feet." Red Dragon clarified before throwing his head back as viciously as possible in the direction of Doranbolt's face.

He succeeded in connecting squarely with Doranbolt's nose and breaking it. He dropped the knife and grasped at his nose that was bleeding profusely. But no sooner did Red Dragon break Doranbolt's nose did he see someone leap out of the very ground and land a devastating upper cut. With Black Dragon revealing himself to have hidden inside Doranbolt's shadow. Now standing next to Red Dragon.

But during this, White Dragon had suddenly and brutally assaulted the surprised guards surrounding him and in just a matter of moments. The three dragons were the only people left standing in the center of the city.

"Allow me master." Black Dragon said quickly, coating his hand in his dark shadowy magic and chopping straight through every restraint holding Red Dragon.

"Oh finally!" Red Dragon exclaimed. Stretching his fairly underused limbs for the first time in close to a year. "How long has it been since I've been free?"

"Just over three months." Black Dragon said.

Red Dragon stared in pure shock. "No, it has to have been longer than that! I heard the new year celebration! That wasn't supposed to happen for a couple of months!"

"Yeah. The celebration is next week. They were celebrating the fact you'd been caught." White Dragon clarified, somewhat confused. How did he not know how long he was captured?

"Wow…really? I guess I was then. Speaking of getting captured, that reminds me." Red Dragon said suddenly, coasting his fist in flames.

Upon seeing his master stalk towards him with a fist ablaze he knew exactly what he was in for. "Wait plea-" White Dragon attempted to beg for forgiveness, but was ignored and a fiery fist crashed into his face and sent him through the house behind him and onto the next street.

"That'll teach you to hit me with a unison raid and then leave me in the middle of a village. Even if it was on fire." Red Dragon mumbled to himself, continuing to curse White Dragon until he was satisfied with himself.

"That may have been a bit excessive." Black Dragon said out of worry for his friends health. Their master may have been a _tad_ more angry than they suspected.

"Ignore him, he still has a job to do." Red Dragon began, before turning around and staring at their newest company. Namely Makarov Dreyar.

"You said everyone was here right? Get 'em together I'm going to have some fun." Red Dragon said, walking towards Makarov with a predatory smile on his face. But Black Dragon stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Grey Dragon and Blue Dragon are probably dealing with Siegrain and his forces right now to make an opening for us to escape. I think we need to retreat while we still have you and before we lose anyone else." Black Dragon asked his master this, but from the pressure he was applying to Red Dragon's shoulder it really was more of an order.

Red Dragon sighed. "Fine, we'll leave. The signal is the same as it always has been right?"

At Black Dragon's nod of his head Red Dragon placed both of his fists on top of one another and brought them to his mouth before inhaling deeply. So deeply that his body actually began to swell up with the amount of magic he'd brought into his lungs.

 **"Fire Dragon's Roar!"** He yelled, as fire spewed forth from his mouth with such force that it climbed higher than the tallest buildings in the city and into the sky. The controlled pillar of fire continued to twist and turn and ravage the skyline before it vanished.

"That should do it." Red Dragon said before sighing in relief after he was hit with a decent exhaustion wave after using up so much magic after being deprived of it for so long. But the sensation brought him great joy, thoughhe still had to deal with Makarov who was angrily staring them down.

"Let's go." Black Dragon said. Their mission was complete and all they had to do was flee. But his arm was tossed off by his master as he continued to glare down Makarov and he the same.

"You and White go. I have some unfinished business with Makarov." Red Dragon said coldly, ignoring the protests of Black Dragon that sprung up immediately.

"But master-" Black Dragon began to ask, no plead with his master to flee. But his master grabbed him by the collar of his shirt got within inches of Black Dragon's face in order to stare him dead in the eye.

"Leave. Right now. You and White will get Grey and Blue Dragon out of this city. Hopefully before any real destruction starts. If I don't hold Makarov off until I can actually escape, then you both will be crushed like insects." Red Dragon, threatened. Though Black Dragon saw the wisdom in his master's words. Makarov was very powerful, only his master could possibly escape. He couldn't escape and protect them at the same time.

"Fine. Be careful." Black Dragon relented, relieved when his master smiled and ruffled his hair like a child rather than punching him through a building like his colleague. He ran off to collect White Dragon and left towards where Grey and Blue Dragon were waiting.

Now that Red Dragon and Makarov were alone. The two simply stared at one another, gauging the other's power and abilities.

"Now that we're alone I hope we can settle this without fighting." Red Dragon said suddenly, dropping all of his anger and casually cleaning out his ear with his pinky.

"How do you expect that to happen? You expect me to let someone else handle you? It's either that or you're left unopposed while you slaughter this city Natsu." Makarov almost spat at the man. He didn't really have much of a choice but to engage Natsu on his own.

"I guess I'll call you by what I used to call you Makky since you're spitting out my name like that." Natsu began, flicking off the ear wax he'd gathered and walked over to the unconscious Doranbolt and swiping the man's overcoat since his own dress was rather lacking to just the ragged black pants they gave prisoners.

"Oh yeah." Natsu said suddenly, snapping his fingers and rudely dropping Doranbolt. To which said man groaned in pain.

"What makes you think I'll slaughter this city Makky?" Natsu asked interested. As if he had absolutely no idea where Makarov was getting the idea from.

"You've destroyed countless villages and killed over a thousand people Natsu. Why do you think I would think that?" Makarov asked rudely, the more he saw Natsu's casual disregard for life the more furious he got with the man and himself.

"Destroyed villages and killed a thousand people? Huh." Natsu began, rubbing his chin in thought before staring quizzically at Makarov. "The last time I spoke to you Makky was when we parted ways after I turned down your offer to join Fairy Tail right?"

"Yes. What about it? Are you going to blame me for your crimes?" Makarov asked with no small amount of hidden anger.

"Oh no I destroyed those villages. But I only killed the mages there. I let everybody else go since they didn't have anything to do with the kidnappings." Natsu clarified, standing no more than six feet apart from Makarov now. Though Makarov was more than prepared for an attack of some kind, he felt no aggressive intent from Natsu.

"What kidnappings? Those villages were nothing but regular villages. There were no mages or kidnappers there." Makarov stated, he'd looked into Natsu's crimes before, desperately looking for something to show he had no involvement. But now he'd heard straight from his mouth that confirmed everything he'd heard and he was angry. But what was he talking about?

"Those kidnappings…how do I explain them? Well-" A sudden explosion rocked the city. Though it was outside the city's walls it was incredibly powerful. Powerful enough for Natsu to force himself into action.

"Makky, I've unfortunately got to cut this short, but if you have even the slightest bit of trust in me after all these years look up the death of a girl named Janice Flowers. You'll have to look fairly hard, she's sadly unimportant to the world. I'd love to explain that to you, but I won't let anyone important to me get hurt. Not again." Natsu said, turning and preparing to sprint off towards the explosion before a giant hand slammed in front of him with the force to shake the ground harder than what that last explosion had done. And it had actually made a cloud big enough to provide shade to the entire city.

"Give me one good reason to believe a word you say. Then I'll let you go." Makarov demanded, refusing to let Natsu leave regardless of what he'd say.

Natsu was silent for a moment, the sounds of battle in the distance could be heard and seen as extremely high level magic was being tossed around as if it was nothing.

Natsu scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and gave a nervous smile to Makarov before he answered. "Sorry Makky. I don't have any good reasons."

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Black and White Dragon had just left the city. And it didn't take them long to see the evidence of their two allies completing their mission admirably. Large pillars of iron and great gashes in the ground surrounding many unconscious bodies, some in much worse condition that others.

"Looks like they did their job in making them think we were launching an all out assault. Looks like the apocalypse out here. Those two don't know how to hold back when it's for his sake do they?" White Dragon said with an amused smile on his face as he surveyed the damage.

"Considering those three are basically family I'm not surprised." Black Dragon agreed with his friend as they continued to search.

"But they did their job well, so where are they?" White Dragon asked. They had all agreed to meet up at a single point after Red Dragon had given them all the symbol to regroup. They were heading towards the rendezvous point but the Grey and Blue Dragon didn't look like they were heading towards the point.

Black Dragon and White Dragon stopped and observed the battlefield more closely. "You don't think they started getting overwhelmed do you?" White Dragon asked, the evidence mounting higher and higher that this was the case.

Just as Black Dragon was about to suggest the contrary, a very powerful explosion knocked them to the ground. The shockwave from the blast rendered them nearly deaf but it did tell them where their comrades were. But that much of a powerful explosive could only be created from a higher level mage then they were. A wizard saint, and only one wizard saint besides Makarov was in Crocus at this time.

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"G…Gajeel…" Whispered the worried and frightened visage of a blue haired girl; her eyes widened as far they could go in shock. She had only minor scrapes and bruises and was more than capable of going much longer with the council regiment that had cornered them. But her hopes of success were suddenly crushed with the most recent addition to the battle.

Namely wizard saint Siegrain.

Of course, Blue and Grey Dragon were doing fine even with his intervention. But neither one of them were prepared or expecting one of the wizard saint's most powerful spells. Just moments ago, seven stars lit up the sky and glowed before smashing into their location with the speed and strength of a meteor.

Blue Dragon's companion realized he wasn't the target of the spell and only had enough time to shield his comrade from certain death and take the brunt of the attack, she survived. But he was much worse off, there were several, at least, inch deep lacerations across his body on the front of his body, she couldn't imagine what his spine looked like. Mainly because she might not have to imagine.

At seeing her alive the man smiled before he collapsed. To the terror of the Blue Dragon who assumed he'd died. She hastily began pouring her lost healing magic into her dear friend in a desperate attempt to save his life.

Siegrain breathed heavily after launching his spell and was surprised that it hadn't killed either of the two Dragons, sure one was nearly dead, but it was well known Blue Dragon could heal wounds and she was damn good at it.

"I'm not sure if I should be ashamed or amazed that they survived." Siegrain said half to himself and half to whoever would listen.

One of the men surrounding the two yelled out in victory. "Not even the power of the dragons can stand up to the wizard saints!" His rally cry was repeated bit by bit until it turned into a chant that overpowered the cries of Blue Dragon as she desperately tried to heal her friend.

As Siegrain smirked a victorious smirk and his men began advancing on the two notorious criminals, he alone stopped suddenly as two more high level magical powers were rushing towards his position at an extremely rapid pace. His life was only saved by his years of experience when a narrow beam of light nearly pierced right through where he was just standing.

His men standing behind him were unable to avoid the oncoming blast and the resulting explosion that followed the spell crashing into the back of someone. The beam of light blasted several dozen of his men away who were unlucky enough to be nearby.

Siegrain turned around and saw the smirking visage of White Dragon wiping at the corner of his mouth.

"Damn. I missed." White Dragon said sadly, it would have been really nice if he'd just taken Siegrain out right there.

"Hmph. You'll need to do better than that to defeat me White Dragon." Siegrain was doing his best to find the other magic power he'd sensed earlier but it had completely vanished. He knew who it was but he'd have to find him before he could fight him.

Blue Dragon suddenly leapt to her feet, out of sight to Siegrain, and drew in as much magic into her lungs as she could while Siegrain was distracted.

 **"Sky Dragon's Roar!"** She bellowed out. Surprising the soldiers advancing on her and Siegrain could just barely jump to the side to avoid the tornado like blast that nearly shredded him to pieces. Though again the same couldn't be said for his men who had been advancing on her.

Soldiers were blasted away and White Dragon took the opportunity to charge the evading Siegrain, who was only just able to throw up his guard and block the powerful kick the sent painful reverberations throughout his body. The power of the kick picked him up off of the ground and sent him rolling on the ground until he planted his feet strongly enough to skid to a stop.

 **"Shadow Dragon's Roar."**

Siegrain didn't have the time to even express his surprise before a wild force of shadows completely swallowed him up and carried him all the way into a large number of his forces nearby. Resulting in a large explosion that crippled any and all of the soldiers caught up in it.

"Suck on that!" White Dragon said enthusiastically before moving to stand between Blue Dragon and the army in front of them. Black Dragon followed him shortly.

"That attack did next to nothing White Dragon. This is only just beginning." Black Dragon reprimanded his comrade. Watching as Siegrain angrily threw off the unconscious bodies of his men with a burst of magic. He looked like he'd barely gotten a scratch.

"Sting. Rogue." Blue Dragon whispered just loud enough for them to hear. "Give me just five minutes and Gajeel will be fine." She was initially extremely worried, but she saw that his wounds would be fine if given time and her magic.

Sting didn't give much of a verbal response, he just simply looked back and grinned while giving her a thumbs up. Afterwards he turned back to stare at the now very angry Siegrain. "We don't have a choice but to hold out Blue. Master is busy with another saint wizard in the city." White Dragon said, locking his livid glare onto the wizard saint who had nearly killed his comrades.

"Another one? How many are in this city? Nevermind that, can master even beat one of them in his condition?" Blue Dragon replied angrily, continuing to apply her healing magic to Grey Dragon.

"He has to. And he knows that. So we can expect him to be victorious. " Rogue answered confidently. "So just worry about Gajeel, we'll deal with that little blue haired pretty boy over there."

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XXXXX

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Natsu groaned and threw the chunk of building that fallen on him off with great force. That last attack had probably broken something. What exactly did it break he didn't know, but a lot of his body was hurting and bleeding at this point.

His new coat had several patches torn off and was singed off by his own magic. It had also been stained red in a couple of places due to the absolute ass kicking Makarov was dealing him. He only hit the old bastard once and then he started getting dominated.

He clambered to his feet and shook his head to get back his senses and when that failed he smacked himself in the face a couple of times. He tried to pop his shoulder only to realize what that last attack had probably broken.

"Oww…Makky this shit hurts you know?" Natsu said childishly, rubbing his incredibly sore shoulder before Makarov shrank down back to normal size.

"That is the point of a battle. I cannot allow you to inflict more pain and suffering when I can stop you here and now." Makarov said with grim determination.

"I see. I see. Kill me here and now and no one else gets killed. I get it." Natsu began, crossing his arms and nodding profusely. "But I can't have that, so sorry Makky, I'm cutting things off here. While I'd love to do nothing more than fight you, I'm extremely hungry, malnourished, my muscles atrophied, and I generally haven't been able to use my body for three months. So I'm pretty fucking tired right now. And I have to bail out my guild. Surely you know what that feels like."

"Natsu…" Makarov felt a bubbling of anger he could only barely describe at being compared to this disgusting human being. With insanely fast speed Makarov brought his enlarged hand down on top of Natsu's skull as hard as he could. But just as he made contact Natsu burst into flames. These flames didn't cover his body, he just turned into flames and dispersed as soon as Makarov hit him.

That moment of hesitation and confusion on Makarov's part was just enough time for Natsu to appear behind Makarov. "An ace in the hole like this only works once on the same person."

Just as Makarov turned his head to combat him, Natsu delivered a powerful blow to the aged and well damaged spine of Makarov Dreyar. Sending him collapsing to the ground in paralyzed agony until it healed.

"You taught me that Makarov. That ace in the holes like that only work once. I never forgot you. You know? I always saw you as a friend. Even till this day and even now. You always have been and always will be my friend. And if telling you that would have avoided this fight then I would have done it." Natsu said solemnly as he stared at the shocked face of Makarov Dreyar.

Natsu smiled ear to ear. "We'll settle this for real one day, after I'm at one hundred percent. Well, maybe we won't have to fight anymore by then. Good night Makky!" He then chopped Makarov on the back of the neck and knocked him out, also undoing any damage he did to Makarov's back in the process.

He went to leave but guilt stopped him from leaving Makarov without anything to go off of. If he knew the old man at all, he probably felt somewhat responsible for Natsu's actions. So he tore a wanted poster off the wall and wrote a couple of instructions as well as a private message on the back. He left it in Makarov's coat pocket.

With that done, Natsu got up and stared off in the distance where his guild was fighting. He guessed one of them were already knocked out of the fight considering that they were up against Siegrain plus what was probably close to a thousand council soldiers. He groaned in annoyance before jumping to the top and observing the distant battle as best he could.

"Let's see." He began, adjusting his feet. "Maybe a mile out? Looks like it." Now that he looked around, this house he was standing on was about the only thing left standing after Makarov took his sweet time to smash him into every nearby building.

"Oh well. I'll deal with the side effects later. Blastoff!" He said without care as plumes of jet like fire flew from the bottoms of his feet and he took off at a blistering pace like a fiery meteor. It took him only but a few moments to learn he'd undershot how far the battle was.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

The fighting had lulled for a moment. Which is something Black and White Dragon were thankful for, a thousand soldiers and a saint wizard was just too damn much. Sure, Grey Dragon was back in the fight thanks to Blue Dragon but they were about to run out of steam since it took most of Blue Dragon's magic to heal Grey Dragon and most of his time was making sure he didn't get overrun. They very well might have to leave their leader to his own devices and try and meet back up at the guild.

"Listen, Dragons." Siegrain began suddenly. He was worse for wear, with a couple of tears in his uniform and a handful of open wounds that were mostly for show, but he was still raring to go. "You are definitely strong. Surrender now and I will personally grant leniency. Your crimes aren't nearly as bad as your leaders. Otherwise…"

Siegrain left his threat open as the sky once again glowed brightly in seven places, almost forming a constellation in the sky. "Or else I'll simply be your judge jury and executioner right here and now."

The four of them looked back at one another repeatedly, they all seemed to individually agree that fleeing really would be their best option. Their master was extremely resourceful, he would be all right.

But just before they all tried to blast their way through the many soldiers in their way, loud effeminate screaming could be heard in the distance. Steadily getting louder and closer.

"Did you guys hear that?" Grey Dragon asked in confusion.

"Look it's master!" Blue Dragon said in excitement! Pointing toward a pink, flaming, and screaming, meteor hurtling towards the group. Only to crash painfully hard into the ground, tumbling, rolling, swearing, and destroying a good chunk of the terrain directly in front of him before suddenly hitting a small patch of dirt that acted as a ramp that propelled him into the air again.

Siegrain blinked in surprise. "What the fuck…" As he watched the manmade comet tumble, the sudden launch into the air actually aimed Red Dragon directly at Siegrain. Something he only noticed when the tackle of a thousand tackles slammed into his body at a sickeningly powerful pace. The two actually continued flying until they'd finally stopped just short of the four dragons. This also conveniently interrupted and stopped Siegrain's casting of **Grand Chariot**.

"Master?" Blue Dragon asked in worry. The two mages, Siegrain and Red Dragon, were seeing stars and had forgotten their surroundings completely. But Red Dragon regained his sense after Siegrain blasted him off with a burst of magic before jumping a good distance away from the five dragons. Rubbing his extremely sore midsection when he was safe.

Red Dragon landed on his feet after the blast and sighed heavily. He cracked his neck and tested his joints to see what else he had damaged in his crazy stunt. "Hey guys. Nice to be back out again. Man, if my shoulder wasn't broken before then it sure as hell is now." He said this casually while rubbing his shoulder and trying to get it to move with varying degrees of success.

 _'Oh fantastic. Now he's here, and I'll catch a hailstorm of shit if he gets away. Please just escape in a way that I can't stop.'_ Siegrain thought to himself angrily. He knew full well he wouldn't be able to defeat Natsu without his full power and he had no way to access it.

"Natsu." Grey Dragon said quietly once he was done testing out his new injuries. "These guys look ready to charge at a moment's notice. We really need to leave."

Natsu looked at Grey Dragon with half annoyance and half excitement. "I thought I told you to use the dragon names unless we're at the guild."

Grey Dragon groaned in exhaustion. "You've been in prison for three months, they know all of our names now. And why do you always focus on something so inconsequential?"

Natsu suddenly got irritated and got in Grey Dragon's face. "Well I wonder why they know your names now? Oh that's right, because all of my orders are stupid to you and you're an idiot!"

Grey Dragon immediately got just as angry as his master. "Who are you calling an idiot? Certainly not you mister 'I got stuck in a prison for three months!"

Natsu had had enough. "C'mere you son of a bitch!"

Natsu and Grey Dragon suddenly began brawling in the middle of the battlefield to the utter astonishment to Siegrain and every soldier surrounding them. But only to the sad despondent sighs of the other three dragons who began drawing in the dirt with either their hands or feet.

Siegrain suddenly felt _very_ insulted and blasted the two of them with magic just as Natsu was trying to gouge out Grey Dragon's eyes and Grey Dragon was about to deck him square in the face. The two immediately halted their brawl and separated in order to dodge.

But then immediately went back to brawling with each other once the blast hit one of Siegrain's soldiers.

Siegrain had enough. "Stop ignoring me!"

"Not going to work." Sting said bored. He and Rogue had sat down and began playing a game of tic-tac-toe. Still in the dirt.

"It's best to just let them go, they'll notice you eventually." Blue Dragon said bored while she was intensely drawing a cat. Also in the dirt.

"You don't need to always be the center of attention Siggy." Rogue said without missing a beat. "I win."

"Eat me. Rematch time." Sting said upset, wiping the previous game away and beginning a new one.

Siegrain was twitching in anger at this point. Not only were they mocking him and calling him an attention seeker. They were also ignoring him. His aura of anger was so great that the nearest soldiers were a hundred feet away and still moved away from him.

"I'll show you an attention seeker." Siegrain said through gritted teeth and a furious smile. Once again the sky glowed brightly in the pattern same as twice before, but this time it was much more luminous.

Natsu and Grey Dragon stopped brawling, as fearful recognition flashed on Grey Dragon's face as he saw the sky glow much more brightly than before. Natsu stopped smiling and replace it with an angry frown.

 **"Grand Chariot!"** Siegrain yelled out as he poured every bit of magical power into his spell as possible. He didn't want bodies left, he didn't even want bloodstains left, he wanted absolutely nothing to remain.

The seven stars began falling towards the ground at a blindingly fast pace. But rather than fleeing, Sting, rogue, and Blue all continued doing whatever they were doing; Grey Dragon just leaned back on his hands and watched the sky. But Natsu stood slightly in front of them and once again filled his lungs to their absolute limits.

 **"Fire Dragon's Roar!"** Unlike when he used his spell to signal that the plan was a success, this time it was far more massive and intense; the heat radiating off of it was making everyone present sweat. Natsu used his enormous flamethrower to attack and destroy all seven glowing balls before they even hit the ground.

The resulting explosion was not small in the slightest. Despite the seven balls being somewhat high in the sky, the dust and dirt created completely swallowed up the entire battlefield. And the fierce winds made sure to blow every single bit of the dust into everyone's eyes.

Siegrain himself could easily deal with the resulting dust cloud. But he was astonished that Natsu, in as weakened state as he was, could actually do something as insane as blowing up one of his top spells like it was nothing. He was so caught up in the moment that he didn't even notice that Natsu was right in front of him.

"Yo!" Natsu said suddenly, the word jerked Siegrain right of his stupor and the blue haired man took a step back in shock.

"What is it?" Siegrain asked rudely, but his voice was slightly shaken and he couldn't make it stop.

"Since everyone is blinded and no one will overhear us thanks to my little friend. So, I thought it was time for us to have a little conversation." Natsu said casually, but Siegrain couldn't shake the threatening feeling that something far larger than him was breathing down his neck.

"What kind of conversation?" Siegrain asked, but rather than an answer, he was instead punched incredibly hard in the stomach, which was immediately followed up by grabbing the back of his head with both hands and driving his knee harshly into Siegrain's nose. Breaking it in a shower of blood.

The blows brought him down to his knees and made his stomach do flips in an effort to not vomit. The blood dripping down his face did not help whatsoever. But Natsu wasn't done with him and grabbed by his hair and smashed his head into the ground hard enough to crack the terrain they were standing on.

"You really are a wizard saint, right?" Natsu asked confused. "Because if you are, you should have been able to see that punch. Hell, you should have been able to counter it."

Siegrain ground his teeth in frustration, as well as in immense pain, why was Natsu asking such specific questions? They were far too specific to just be random questions to mock him. "Of course I am a saint you fool. What kind of question is that?"

But Natsu replied immediately with a completely unconvinced stare. "Then why are you so damn weak Siggy? You're nothing compared to your brother. You're barely half his strength. And usually when you kill someone, they'll always say that their family will avenge their death. He didn't even mention you."

Siegrain's eyes widened to almost the side of his head. All of the pain in his body was gone in an instant and in its place was a startling realization. So _that_ was him. He really was the one who did _that._

Natsu seemed to also come to the same conclusion because his face suddenly contorted to one of unbridled rage. The fire that suddenly burned behind his eyes was beyond intense, Siegrain could feel his soul being dragged through into that fire pit that burned in Natsu's furious eyes. But suddenly it was gone and he was simply staring at the ring he was wearing on his hand with a far off look. Before Siegrain could question it, Natsu brought a fiery fist down on his head and his world faded to black.

He sighed as he got up, driving his foot onto the back of Siegrain's head as he did so. "I thought I was done with all of that. Oh well." He had a lot of work to do later and he was starting to get _really_ tired. He created a sizeable fireball in his hand and quickly the impromptu dust storm faded away.

Thankfully for the soldiers, reinforcements had arrived and Makarov Dreyar was there with them. But when the dust cleared they were all shocked to the core to see a rather bored looking Red Dragon standing victoriously over an unconscious and beaten Siegrain. On top of all that, the four dragons had taken the opportunity to regroup and recharge their batteries and were now more than ready for an all out battle to the end.

Makarov stared surprised at the unconscious Siegrain, but he was hoping Siegrain could have lasted long enough for him to get here with the council's reinforcements. After all, Natsu was his mistake and he would atone for it.

But Natsu knew Makarov was about to challenge him again, and he wouldn't manage to escape this time. But he had one last trick up his sleeve.

"Oi Makky. You're crazy if you think I'm going to fight you again. So instead, let's have a little game of chicken." Natsu said, kicking the unconscious body of Siegrain into the waiting arms of his men who hastily began treating him.

Makarov raised an eyebrow in interest. "Chicken eh? What do I have to lose?" He didn't actually intend to go along with Natsu's game but he'd let him think it.

"Well, you let my guild go." Natsu began, motioning behind him with his thumb. The group in mention raising an amused eyebrow. "And the first one to go after them loses. You want to know what happens to the loser?"

Makarov was curious again, at least Natsu was still as interesting as he was when he was a child. "What happens to the loser?" One didn't have to be veteran mage to feel the tension in the air between the two wizards. It was almost thick enough to choke on it.

Natsu grinned dangerously. "They die."

He then began coiling every single bit of his magic onto his arms and forced all of it to continuously keep feeding into a small ball between his hands. And every time the ball started to grow larger than his hands, he would growl and put even more effort into shrinking it back down. He was compressing all of his magic into a ball no bigger than a tennis ball. When he finished sweat was visibly dripping off of him and even his own guild members were looking back and forth nervously. But they remained silent and watched their master do what he did best.

Makarov wasn't going to give Natsu anymore time to cast his dangerous spell and took a step forward. But as soon as he did Natsu laughed loudly.

"I wouldn't do that Makky, the magic here is so compressed and powerful to the point where it's fires would even burn me to ashes. Just imagine what it would do if I lost my concentration for just a moment. What would happen to this bomb in my hands here." Natsu said with a strained laughter.

Makarov became infuriated and ordered the forces nearby to move far away from Red Dragon but to also ensure that they were surrounded completely. _'What's your game Natsu? What would you accomplish by killing everyone here?'_

"All right now, the dragons will leave without any resistance. Right now. Or else I drop the ball and blow us all away." Natsu threatened.

To show that they were willing to believe absolutely in their master, all four dragons stood right next to Natsu. Showing everyone present that they'd rather die than let their master be captured again.

The sight _almost_ brought a smile to Makarov's face. They had such faith in one another that he almost saw them as members of Fairy Tail for a moment. He snapped himself out of his revere. And weighed his options, it became apparent fast that letting four criminals go in exchange of thousands of lives was the correct choice. He could apprehend Natsu simply now that he was using all his magic like that.

"Fine." Makarov agreed, despite not actually having the authority to release them he agreed swiftly. The soldiers looked back and forth, grumbling at one another, before eventually opening a path for the four mages to leave.

Sting and Rogue were the first to leave. Grey Dragon followed them after going back to bring Blue Dragon with him. She didn't really want to leave her master alone anymore. But once Natsu ordered her to go she eventually conceded and left with the group who vanished in the nearby forest.

As soon as he believed they were a good distance away, Natsu dropped his spell and collapsed to his knees with a smile. He laughed, that spell was absolutely worthless, all it ever did was just make him burn away all his magic. It had no explosive results like he claimed.

"I surrender! I'm out of magic completely. Three months of atrophy and two saint wizards is just too much." Natsu said while switching to sit on his butt and wait for him to be either killed or recaptured.

The soldiers released a collective sigh of relief once Natsu had dropped to his knees. Makarov was one of them. But as he was about to ask for a set of magic restraining cuffs, Siegrain placed a hand on his shoulder.

"That's quite enough Makarov. You may leave, this is the council's job not yours." While Siegrain's words were kind, there was no kind nature to the way they were said or in the body language of the one who said them.

Makarov was going to argue to stay until Natsu was completely recaptured, but Siegrain said something to stop him. "If you stay here any longer, then I'll have Fairy Tail go without a master for a while. Someone has to take responsibility for the damage he's done."

Makarov didn't like the words one bit, he actually felt offended, but left anyway. Now Natsu was surrounded by everyone who was furious with him. Siegrain more than any.

Siegrain had Makarov leave for no reason other than he knew he wouldn't let him kill Natsu right here and now. So he pulled rank and forced him to leave. Siegrain grabbed the magic restraining cuffs and walked over to the exhausted and smiling Natsu. He grabbed him by the arm and violently pulled him to his feet before completely impaling him through the chest with his arm.

But as soon as Siegrain impaled Natsu, he turned into a man composed entirely of flames and dispersed. Startling the entire military force their and making Siegrain see nothing but red.

 _'Natsu Dragneel!'_

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

The four of them were watching as Siegrain tried to underhandedly kill their master and Blue Dragon nearly flew into a blood rage. But when the very man they all just watched die scared the crap out of them by jumping out in front of them, they had several questions. Of course they were asked after Grey Dragon immediately continued his brawl where Siegrain had interrupted it. And the entire group was relieved that it was all over.

Or at least they were relieved until Natsu collapsed in front of them suddenly.

"Oi Wendy! What's wrong with him?" Grey Dragon asked in worry. Sting and Rogue were both worried, but Grey Dragon was simply the first one to vocalize it.

Wendy was extremely diligent in diagnosing what was wrong with him, but her worry soon turned back into one of relief. "He's just really malnourished and used a lot of magic Gajeel. He'll be fine once we get back to the guild and he gets some food in him. He also might have a broken collarbone. I can fix the collarbone. Other than that he just needs rest." After a little bit of being enveloped by Wendy's glowing green healing magic Natsu fell asleep.

Gajeel nodded his head and threw the now sleeping master on his back. "All right, lets head back and snag some food while we're at it."

Sting looked ready to agree right there, but Rogue halted them all with a hand. "I think it would be best right now to just head back and eat there. He can wait another hour to eat. Besides I was ready for this."

Rogue then pulled the knapsack he was hiding underneath his overcoat and pulled a sizeable amount of food in plastic baggies. "Here you go master. As fresh as two day old Lisanna food can be."

"Ass kisser." Sting mumbled under his breath, failing to dodge the backhand that connected directly to his face from the one he was insulting.

Natsu seemed to wake up enough to recognize he was being talked too but simply ate the food whole, plastic bags and all. "Mooooore…" He mumbled before falling asleep again.

"Everyone ready?" Gajeel asked, after receiving firm nods of confirmation they all started off towards the guild.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"We're finally here! Took long enough, I really missed this place." Sting said excitedly, happily jumping down the canyon that lead to the entrance of their guild. Followed swiftly by his comrades.

"Let's see you carry him all the way here and listen to him snoring you damn twig! I bet you would have caved in ten minutes." Gajeel snapped at him, annoyed at being the one stuck with lugging back their surprisingly heavy master.

"Whine, whine, whine. It's all you do." Sting and Gajeel continued to argue as they entered the run down shack that hid their guild.

"Kami this place is gross." Wendy complained, plugging her nose as the rotten boards and animal marks found its way into her sensitive nose.

"Then clean it." Sting said blankly.

The group opened up the hidden compartment hidden by the empty bookshelf. They all silently followed the stairs down as Rogue grabbed a torch and led them down the dark passageway. After several minutes of minor bickering between the group, the stairs eventually led them to a well lit cavern of immense size.

In this cavern laid a huge stone carving of a dragon with an open maw big enough for one to walk in with ease. The body coiled around the entirety of the cave, before eventually merging together into one big guild room with only minor rooms off to the size that they had added after the place was made theirs.

"This looks nothing like a dragon. It really doesn't." Sting commented, looking at the giant structure they were walking into.

"You say that every time." Gajeel commented tiredly, he'd heard this spiel a hundred times . As did everyone who actually listened anymore.

"I know but doesn't it bother you how little it looks like our dragons? I still can't believe you guys still don't get bothered by it. Dragon worshippers are weird." Sting said immediately. He was always ready to argue this fact until someone saw it his way.

"Why do you never understand or remember that all of our dragons look completely different? It's completely possible that a dragon looks exactly like this!" Wendy said exhausted, Sting would always argue this point and it honestly was just faster to argue it with him than to listen to him complain about being ignored for six hours. Drunk.

"Everyone shut up." Rogue ordered. They had all entered the dragon's mouth and reached the back of its throat. Rogue knocked three times in rapid succession and watched as a slide opened up just big enough for someone to look out and see who was there.

The slide shut and several unlocking sounds were heard before a ragged looking woman with short white hair wearing a black barmaid uniform with just longer than a knee length skirt opened the door. The woman looked as if she hadn't stopped worrying for an eternity.

"Where have you all been for three days? I've been worried sick! I thought you'd all been captured!" The woman said angrily, but also relieved when she saw that they were finally returning with the last member of their little guild. She quickly ushered them in and locked the door behind them. The room she quickly brought them into was a quaint little dining hall. The group of them finally kicked up their feet and relaxed after a job well done.

"Sorry Lisanna." Sting apologized embarrassed. "But they kept changing his execution date."

Lisanna glared at them but sighed and evened out the wrinkles in her dress before turning towards their master. "I'm guessing he's ridiculously hungry." Lisanna said while pointing to the sleeping Natsu whom was now just resting his head on the table.

Natsu's eyes groggily cracked open. "I smell Lisanna but I don't smell Lisanna's food."

"That answer your question?" Gajeel said with a smile.

Lisanna smiled widely. "Yep! One Natsu sized food mountain on its way." She then filled three mugs with booze and gave Wendy a glass of milk.

Wendy grumbled when she saw her milk. "I'm fourteen. I don't want milk I want liquor!"

"You're too young for it!" Lisanna reprimanded her from behind the counter. But went back to cooking before she could follow up on it.

"Wendy just chug the milk real quick." Sting whispered in her ear.

When Wendy raised an eyebrow in interest, Sting just urged her to do it. Out of curiosity she complied and sure enough as soon as she was done, Sting split his alcohol with her and she beamed from ear to ear.

"Thanks bid brother Sting!" Wendy almost never referred to the others as her older brothers anymore, but that's exactly what she thought of them and she slipped back into her childhood habit of calling them her older brothers when she was either really happy or excited. Though she saw Natsu as more of a father figure considering she had been with him the longest and since she was a lot younger.

Sting blushed a little bit out of embarrassment but kept his cool about it. "That's what I'm here for right?"

Wendy nodded her head in excitement and went to take a big sip but a hand on her wrist stopped her. When she looked to see its owner she was meant with the disappointed stare of Natsu .

"When you're old enough for liquor I'll tell you. Until then you're not allowed." Natsu reprimanded her, slowly sitting upright in his chair and staring her down until she put the glass down and dumped it back in Sting's bottle.

Natsu nodded his head and rubbed her hair affectionately. "Good. Besides, that's eighty proof vodka. You don't want to start with that."

Wendy suddenly felt a great gratitude to Natsu and great anger at Sting, who was whistling and pretending not to notice the glare of a thousand children staring into his soul.

Shortly after this exchange, Natsu brought everyone's attention to himself. "Have you guys been progressing with the plan at all these last three months or have you spent the majority of the time planning to bust me out?"

Gajeel sighed. "No, I don't think we can make a move on those guys without you Natsu. OraciónSeis maybe, but we don't have the balls to do anything else without you."

Natsu nodded his head in acceptance. "To be honest I don't want any of us to make a move yet now that I've got more of a handle on my strength limit. Speaking of that, even at max strength I wouldn't be able to defeat Makarov unless I went all out."

Everyone at the table stared at him in surprise. Natsu never actually admitted when he was weaker than somebody unless it was by a large margin. "You can't be serious Natsu. You're untouchable! You dominated that wizard saint Siegrain! How could you not handle Makarov? You'd really need to use to use _that_ to beat him?" Sting said suddenly, voicing what everyone was thinking.

Natsu shrugged his shoulders. "Hell that might not actually be enough. I've never met someone who was still stronger than me in that form so I don't know it's limits. He could still probably beat me. All I know is it would be a long and brutal fight."

There was silence at the table, if Natsu was doubting his own strength then their plans might be impossible.

"There's actually more pressing matters than either the plan or Makarov." Natsu said with a dead serious tone that they hadn't heard from him in a long time.

"Jellal's alive."

Natsu's proclamation shocked everyone at the table and Gajeel slammed his hand on the table in anger.

"That's impossible! You killed him and that tower of his ten years ago! How the hell is he alive?" Gajeel demanded to know. Why the hell was Natsu mentioning someone they all hated immensely? That man would ruin the day for all of them.

Natsu shook his head. "I ran out of time to ask Siegrain. But he knows something."

Sting huffed in anger loudly. "Does that mean we're going back to the tower?" He didn't even really need to ask, he wanted to go back.

Natsu nodded his head. "As soon as I'm healed and back at full power yeah."

"But forget about that." Natsu began, perking everyone up. "We're still going to make the entire Balam Alliance our bitches!"

They all smiled ear to ear and clanked their drinks together, minus Natsu who didn't have one and Wendy since she was too short. To add to the celebration Lisanna finished cooking Natsu's meal for him and they all watched as he sucked at least ten pounds of food into stomach in a matter of moments.

"More!"

* * *

 **A/N: That's a wrap. Also I need to ask you guys if you like the longer chapters or if you like the shorter ones that come out a little more often. I don't particularly care which. That's it for today though, so hopefully you all enjoyed it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I will say that this chapter had me conflicted. I couldn't decide whether to have more action or focus more on characters that will be important later. You'll probably be able to spot where there was more action planned, but I much prefer the direction it went instead. But please tell me if you guys want more action because I will accommodate happily. Also, I wonder if anybody can figure out why I chose the characters I did for this chapter?**

 **I also figured out the reasons Lisanna's there. You want to know? Too bad you have to wait because I may or may not have written it in.**

 **Anyway, please enjoy and leave a quick review if you did enjoy it!**

* * *

Deep inside the capital council building, all of the council members were holding a top secret meeting. They had all been present for several hours, as was customary for their more important meetings. But thanks to Siegrain's latest motion, they had all been heavily discussing said motion for quite some time on top of the few hours they needed to be there.

Due to Natsu breaking out of his execution and his guild openly assaulting the capital to break him out. After he was defeated and made a fool of, Siegrain had been pushing for everyone to overrule their previous rulings to guild against guild fighting. His reasoning was to have the council send out orders to the top guilds in Fiore to send their best men where they all believed Dragon's Keep was hiding out in order to wipe them out. His other reasoning that eventually pushed the others over to his side of the argument was that Dragon's Keep was actually starting to tip the power balance between the two guild factions and it might give the dark guilds the last power push they might need to overthrow the magic council. He even said that the guild might actually join the Balam Alliance.

 _That_ had gotten everyone quite worried. A fourth member to the Balam Alliance would absolutely tip the power scales in the dark guilds favor considerably. It didn't take long for the voting to commence after that.

They had just finished counting their votes for the motion."With a vote of nine to one the motion carries. We will send the orders to the top guilds in the country. That is all."

Siegrain smirked greatly underneath his mask of indifference. He was the first one to leave and it didn't take long for his friend Ultear to follow and catch up to him quickly. Ultear was a fine woman with a curvaceous figure and the assets that enhanced that figure. She wore a simple white kimono with a red dragon coiling around the base up unto her shoulder, where her straight jet black hair continued past her shoulders and framed her flawless face. The dress had a slit on the left side for her leg to hang out and draw more attention to her obvious beauty.

But why was she wearing a symbol directly related to Natsu? Well, Ultear like to anger Siegrain as much as possible, and the recent ass kicking Natsu, or Red Dragon, had handed to him was something she would never let him live down.

Of course, she _did_ know why Siegrain got beaten so handily. But she was playing the fool on that reason to further irk the blue haired man.

At first Siegrain ignored her since he was heavily caught up in his own little world. But when he got back to his chambers he finally acknowledged the woman. Well, actually, he had to respond to her questions. So he was kind of forced to acknowledge her.

"Why are you so angry at my little Red Dragon?" Ultear asked innocently, despite her connections, Ultear didn't actually know the exact reason behind Jellal's anger towards the man. Or vice versa. She didn't actually know his name until the council found it first, which felt like a slap in the face but hell she'd take it without stopping to think about it.

Siegrain looked at her as if she'd asked why the sky is purple. "I can't tell you here. But suffice it to say that my pride as a warrior has been damaged several times by that man." He'd never tell her why Natsu and he hated each other's guts as much as they did. Because she'd never let him hear the end of it either.

Plus it was one of the pieces of information Ultear couldn't actually get on her own which he also held over her head whenever the opportunity presented itself.

"Oh why not? Is it embarrassing?" Ultear teased from the couch she sat on perpendicular to Siegrain's desk. "Don't tell me you were involved with one another!"

Siegrain stared straight into her soul after the question. That question was so wrong and idiotic he didn't even bother reacting to it.

Ultear rolled her eyes at the obvious reaction. "You're no fun Siggy. But is it necessary to lead this mission yourself? Won't that be dangerous?" She knew what Jellal was planning to do, and it was both incredibly risky and stupid. Not to mention overkill.

Siegrain knew that she wasn't talking to him. She was actually talking to Jellal. "I'm simply not strong enough on my own. That's why _I'm_ leading this mission. To ensure Natsu is killed in this mission. Along with his pathetic little guild."

Though the air became somewhat cold at Siegrain's personal words. Ultear couldn't miss another opportunity to mock him. "Well, Natsu and his 'pathetic guild' made you look like a complete fool in front of all your men."

Ultear was actually surprised that Siegrain kept his face even throughout the insult. But she could almost feel how angry and upset he was that he couldn't really disprove what she'd said.

With a smile Ultear decided to leave Siegrain to his work. But to try harder to make him break.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Makarov stared at the two letters in front of him in inner turmoil. One of the letters was formal orders from the magic council for him to send as many of his best mages that he could in a conjoined effort to defeat and arrest Dragon's Keep. His people along with Phantom Lord and Lamia Scale would mount a joint offensive hopefully being strong enough to defeat them and capture them all.

He was no uninformed master, he was aware of what happened the last time the council did something like this. It was against Grimoire Heart several years ago, the council was trying to cut the head off the snake, so to speak, and every mage involved in the attack was killed. Now the council was, basically, asking him to send his own children out to kill themselves.

The other letter was what Natsu had written him after he lost. It's contents were as cryptic as the request Natsu gave him at Crocus. But what he did understand was that Natsu was fully aware that his guild's crazy stunt was going to infuriate the magic council. But that wasn't all, Natsu felt guilty.

In a little harmless afterthought, underneath some instructions on where to go if he wanted to find this Janice Flowers, was Natsu saying that he was the only person he felt bad for hurting in any way that was still alive. He knew that he would feel responsible for his actions and told him to simply wait and to keep his people away from any action made by the council. It was all capitalized by a simple threat at the bottom of the message.

 _'I don't want anyone important to you to die Makky. But that isn't going to stop me from doing it.'_

Makarov reached a decision after a little more careful deliberation and while he realized he couldn't actually refuse a direct order from the council. He could just refuse to send his agreement until someone finally came down to get it themselves. So he had until then to come up with something.

But until then…

Makarov then hopped off his chair and walked out of his office and up the stairs to the S-Class request wall. He briefly exchanged a glance with his grandson who raised a curious eyebrow at the unusual sight of Makarov being up there. He continued to watch with an even more curious eye as Makarov put up a warning sign that showed the well known criminal Red Dragon with the words 'flee on sight' written underneath his photo and over his immensely large bounty.

Laxus scoffed at his grandfather. "I know you got a history with that guy old man. But if you really needed my help to bring him in then all you had to was ask."

Makarov turned on his grandson hastily. "That applies to you too Laxus."

Laxus was a large man and liked to portray himself as larger than life. He was also quite full of himself. But he had the power to back up all of his comments plenty. All that said though, when Makarov basically told him 'you're too weak to fight him' he took great offense.

"Did you just tell me I'm too weak for that pipsqueak? I'm more than strong enough to bring someone who scares the council old man. We scare the council and this guild is full of weaklings." Laxus said angrily, he hated it when people assumed he was weak.

Makarov stopped and turned to Laxus. "You are not weak Laxus. It's just this man is terrifyingly powerful. I couldn't live with myself if you decided to fight him and he killed you simply because I was too full of myself to warn you not too."

Makarov walked up to Laxus so that he was simply a few feet away. "I know you're not very fond of me, but don't forget that you are still family. And I'd never tell you to run from someone powerful unless they scared me. I'm telling the same to rest of the guild. You're powerful, but there are mages out there even stronger than me, and he very may well be."

Laxus scoffed again, but eventually just ignored his grandfather and continued to drink from his beer. He'd decide for himself if Red Dragon was too strong for him.

Makarov sighed and turned back around and headed down the stairs. He would have to just get it over with. He was hoping Erza and Mirajane would return from their missions soon. He was worried that they might run into one of the dragons. Natsu was planning something big, and he knew he'd have to stop him.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Back at Dragon's Keep, there were only four of them present. Them being Rogue, Wendy, Gajeel, and Lisanna. They were all busy doing what Natsu had ordered before leaving. Sting wasn't there because he was out getting some money, he didn't say how exactly which led to everyone still left putting money on what he did to get money.

Wendy bet he was doing a bounty mission. Rogue bet he was doing a monster hunting mission. Lisanna bet that he was raiding a local guild.

Gajeel though, he was willing to lose his money and bet that Sting was out selling himself on the street for cash.

Wendy and Lisanna went beet red and yelled at Gajeel and threatened to beat him. But Rogue was busy choking on his own spit. Wendy sympathetically pat him on the back, but it didn't really work until Gajeel cracked him with an iron club.

After everyone calmed down and Gajeel got another earful, Wendy suddenly stopped wiping the counter down and sighed. "I'm worried about Natsu."

Her comment made everyone raise their eyebrows in confusion. "What makes you say that Wendy?" Gajeel asked, more curious than concerned.

Wendy looked at her hands and fiddled with her fingers. "Well, he said Jellal's alive. So he might be hurting again and Natsu usually wanders off so far when he's upset."

Gajeel didn't really have an answer for her and he stayed silent. Not just Gajeel, but everyone knew that Jellal hurt Natsu in a way that he'd most likely never get over. But not a single one of them was actually with Natsu back then, so they didn't really know how to comfort him or dissuade Wendy's concerns. Sadly, the only one who could do both was Natsu himself.

"I wouldn't worry about Natsu Wendy." Rogue said from underneath the counter. Throwing open the cellar door and climbing out, dust and dirt clasping to his apron. "I think the emotional pain that Jellal caused, I think he's accepted it and moved on. I think he's more along the lines of just needing to make sure Jellal is dead."

Rogue's answer seemed to satisfy Wendy and everybody else, except for Lisanna.

"I don't think that's it either Rogue." Lisanna countered. Usually she kept out of their discussions, since she wasn't a mage or had anything to add. But all of them listened when she did have something to say and regarded it just the same as if she were family.

"It's probably more along the lines of him just being bored and wanting to explore the outside again. After all, he has been in a prison for three months. Plus, isn't that pretty much exactly what he said?" Lisanna was much more in tune with the guild's emotional side and this is where she shined.

They all saw the wisdom of what she said and decided to drop the topic. After all, they'd all know who was right once they saw Natsu's mood when he came back.

You know, unless Sting got him arrested again.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Sting casually kicked the door in of the collapsing Bandit Guild that'd he'd found and politely began strangling the last person alive, or conscious it was about a fifty fifty split.

"Now tell me." Sting began with a smile on his face, lifting the gasping man who's feet kicked rapidly in a desperate attempt to find the ground. "Where's all your cash hiding, hmm?"

The bandit leader desperately pointed in the vague direction of a wall. When Sting saw that it in fact, was a wall, he grabbed the man by his hair and stopped strangling him in order to drag him to the wall. Whereupon Sting simply used the man's body as a battering ram and knocked the wall down. He heard a crunch or two but didn't really care. The man was twitching on the ground when he let him go but all their stolen goods was on display, so again, he didn't really care.

He found a nearby, most likely stolen, carriage outside mostly unaffected from his destruction and loaded most of the stolen goods he could fit on it, afterwards he pulled it near a hill. But he loaded most of the actual money in a bag no bigger than his head to take with him back to the guild. There was more, but he didn't have any need for it.

He looked around for a bit before standing to the side of the caravan and let it keep rolling down the road. That road actually led to the village where this Bandit Guild kept swiping from and they didn't really have much of a need to keep a bunch of stolen crap like pictures, armor, and weapons. Sure there were a handful of actually valuable pieces of stuff in there but he couldn't be bothered because, again, he just didn't fucking care.

But before the carriage got very far, it stopped rolling suddenly. It turned sideways and a woman grabbed a nearby rock and jammed it in front of the wheel and making sure it wasn't going anywhere.

Sting was confused. "What'd you go and do that for miss? I was bringing it back, you know, indirectly so I wouldn't have to do it. But the principle is the same."

The woman turned to glare sharply at him. The woman was wearing a, rather appealing, two piece black gothic dress that left her midriff bare and left little to the imagination about her figure. She was also wearing what looked to be black sandals to match her dress. He couldn't really tell because the slit in her dress only let him see her feet for a moment before the dress hid them again. She also had snow white hair that went just past her shoulders, or at least the ponytail it was in went just past her shoulders anyway.

"If you're bringing all that stuff back then what's in that bag on your shoulder huh?" The woman said angrily while continuing to march up the hill and stopping about eight feet away from him with her arms crossed.

 _'Oh boy. I just happened to find a chick with a shorter fuse than Natsu's. This'll be fun.'_ Sting thought to himself with a groan.

"Well this is just my cut for helping out this nearby town with its bandit problem for free." Sting said slyly, he had a sneaking suspicion that this woman was actually sent here to deal with this guild and he might have to fight her or run.

The woman glared at him before walking past him and looking down the hill where what remained of the Bandit Guild sat. After huffing in disappointment she turned to see the bored looking Sting blatantly checking out her ass with zero shame.

She smirked a little bit. "Watch where your eyes wander buddy. You know, you remind me of a criminal. Walking off with a huge bounty like that."

Sting shrugged his shoulders. "You got me, I'm actually a criminal and that carriage had a bomb in it. Good job miss detective."

The woman growled in irritation. But instead of jumping at him she got right in his face and looked his face up and down. "You don't remind me of any criminal I'm familiar with."

Sting blinked in surprise. "Really?"

The woman nodded her head and backed off. She sighed in disappointment again. "I was looking forward to burning off some steam on those bandits, but someone beat me to it. I'm a little sad. I gotta say though, I'm a little disappointed in you."

Sting looked offended, and yes it was because a woman was calling him disappointing . "What'd I do miss, uh…"

"Mirajane Strauss. Friends call me Mira."

Sting smirked a little. "Well, Mira, what'd I do?"

The now named Mirajane smiled devilishly. "Well you didn't ride that carriage like a badass all the way down that hill."

 _'Maybe she doesn't have such a short fuse. Though I don't like this girl for some reason.'_

Ignoring his suspicions, Sting laughed off the accusation from Mirajane. "Sorry, but I get extremely motion sick from the simplest things."

Mira looked disbelieving but eventually shrugged her shoulders. "I heard there was a demon nearby and I was paid to defeat it. I was going to throw in these bandits for free. Since I'm kind of in a hurry do you know where the demon is?"

Sting raised an amused eyebrow. He knew what she was talking about, but that thing wasn't an actual demon. As far as he knew they didn't exist. "Yeah I do, but it actually can screw with people's heads. I wouldn't recommend going alone."

Mirajane crossed her arms in curiosity. "What do you mean screw with people's head?"

Sting shrugged his shoulders. He was starting to get bored and wanted to get back already. "Don't know, master always told me to never mess with it. Scares the hell out of him." He was lying, definitely, nothing scared Natsu. But he was going to use that as an excuse.

"Well could you lead me there anyway. I don't think it can actually mess with my head, but just in case it does I don't want to become some demon's fuck puppet forever because it got horny when it saw me." Mirajane said bluntly, surprising Sting with her forwardness.

He sighed, that thing was on the way back to the guild and this chick was at least entertaining. But he doubted she'd put out in a century, she screamed the word 'dyke'. "Fine, as long as you don't hassle me about it."

She genuinely smiled. "I appreciate that, in all seriousness though, you're going to walk all that stuff back to the village after we're through. There' s lots of memories in there and people don't like having their memories destroyed anymore than they enjoy them being stolen."

He groaned in annoyance, but he was already too deep to back out now. He tossed the bag in the back of the wagon and started walking towards it. "It'll be faster to just do this now because I'd have to do twice the walking to get back to my guild."

She thought about it for a moment but eventually agreed. If she wanted his help then she might as well let him dictate the pace, at least for a little bit. "All right. But let's speed it up. We're burning daylight."

While the trip was somewhat quick, it wasn't uneventful, what with Mirajane pushing Sting onto the caravan and watching in astonishment how he became almost instantly blue in the face. The sight made her laugh loudly at the poor man and for him to refuse to call her anything but dyke for the rest of the time they were together.

But once they were back in the village and they were on their way out of the village, Sting stopped for a moment and was staring into an alleyway when Mira noticed he'd stopped.

"Hey, what are you doing?" She asked him, but he seemingly ignored her and wandered down into the alley. She huffed and looked down the alley ready to complain that he was killing time until she saw what Sting had seen.

Two little kids one boy and a girl, no older than five or six, sleeping in a corner with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. She was silent when Sting crouched down and gently tried to stir them awake.

Unaware to Mirajane, Sting himself was an orphan when Natsu had found him. He was basically in this exact situation.

 _"Hey kid…hey kid! Wake up!"_

 _"What the hell do you want?"_

 _"Are you alone?"_

 _"What's it to you?"_

 _"Want something to eat? I got plenty of money."_

 _"Maybe…"_

 _"Then come with me real quick. After that maybe if you stay around we'll become friends."_

 _"Will there be more food?"_

 _"Absolutely."_

He was easy to sway as a kid, but the kindness Natsu showed him that day wouldn't ever be forgotten. So he always worked his hardest to make Natsu's life as easy as possible. So he went back to waking the kids up, trying to repay the kindness he received that day.

He was trying a lot harder to shake the two children awake at this point. He must have been shaking them pretty hard since Mirajane's hand actually stopped him from doing it. It was obvious these kids weren't going to wake up.

"Stop it." Mirajane ordered, it really would have been more upsetting than it already was if he kept at it.

Silently, Sting dropped the bag of money he was carrying and grabbed the two kids. Mirajane could only keep a steady and silent walk beside him. But their walk was interrupted suddenly when a random villager stopped him.

"What are you doing with those kids?" He said angrily.

Mirajane was about to explain but Sting did it for her.

"What do you care? You didn't care about them before." Sting said darkly, his bangs hiding the various emotions in his eyes.

"What? I've never met these kids in my life. I'm asking what you think you're doing with them." The man defended himself quickly.

Sting's head shot up and Mirajane saw the unrestrained fury in his eyes and was surprised at how angry he was. "Of course you don't know who they are! You never cared in the first place! If you cared about them at all, these kids who live in _your_ village, then they wouldn't be dead right now!"

Sting's voice was escalating as he spoke, he started getting people's attention.

"Why are you blaming me? I had no idea they were struggling." The man was hastily trying to defend himself. Why was he at fault?

"Yeah, it's not his fault. Lay off of him." Mirajane said in his defense, she didn't know where this was coming from and it surprised her the intensity behind it.

"Of course it's your fault!" Sting accused loudly, shifting both of the kids into one arm carefully. Before pointing an accusatory finger at the man in front of him.

"It's your fault too!" He pointed to one of the onlookers who had gathered. "And yours! And yours! And yours! It's my fault too! It's everyone's fault!"

When the onlookers were silenced by his words he continued. "It's all our fault! We weren't looking for these kids when they _did_ need help! And now that they're dead people have the gall to feel sorry for themselves! If you think it could have been avoided then where were you?"

Sting was breathing heavily, more in an attempt to get himself back under control after his outburst, than any other reason. "Where were you when they needed you most?"

When he received only silence as his answer he scoffed. "If you can't answer then you don't have any right to be sad that they died if you couldn't be there when they would have cared. Get out of my way, I'm going to do the worst thing you can do for someone."

Mirajane didn't really know what to do other than follow him.

He carried them outside the village and found a peaceful little group of trees, she didn't need to ask what he was doing when he got on his knees and started digging a grave for both of them.

She offered to help but he smiled and shook his head. In a little over an hour sting had finished the impromptu graves and sent them off with a little prayer. Afterwards he simply sat there and stared at the two graves he'd just made.

"Where did all that come from?" Mirajane asked after a good silence. She wanted to ask for a while but this was the first time she could actually make herself ask.

Sting sighed heavily and leaned back on his hand and ran the free one through his hair. "That was just experience from over the years that built up from when I was one of those kids. What I said is basically just what they think when no one is there to help them."

Mirajane nodded her head, but being at a grave really dredged up memories she really didn't want to remember. "This reminds me of when we buried my sister."

"You had a sister?" He asked, half interested, she listened to him and he could at least listen to her.

She shook her head sadly. "She died on a mission a few years ago. Ever since she died I've been really short with people. But we never actually buried her, we could never find her body."

He felt bad for her, but her words afterwards surprised him.

"We were actually orphans too. My magic ostracized our family. So my brother, me, and my sister all had to leave our village. What you said earlier, it's how I used to feel about the world. But after so many years at Fairy Tail I guess I was just able to forget about it." She said, she didn't know why she was telling all of this to a stranger, maybe it's because he'd also experienced the pain of being alone.

"What was your sister's name?" Sting asked, more to be polite than anything.

Mirajane smiled as she remembered her sister. "Her name was Lisanna."

 _'That's a coincidence…I better not say anything, it would crush her to get her hopes up like that.'_ But he kept thinking about it. Mirajane and Lisanna _did_ look a lot alike. But coincidences like that were more common that assuming the best.

After a little while longer he got up and dusted the dirt off of his hands. "Let's forget about this little experience, well don't forget about it but just stop thinking about it. We have a demon to slay right?"

To her surprise, she didn't actually feel like slaying the demon anymore. If she knew that frustration in his eyes he'd probably do it himself now because of how angry the villagers made him. But she surprised herself again when she smiled and accepted his hand to help her up.

But during the time they were in the village, Mirajane actually caught the glimpse of Red Dragon's wanted poster and remembered that the guild Dragon's Keep wasn't actually too far from here. She might want to warn this person about that. But for some reason she kept quiet about it. She entertained the thought of this guy being affiliated with the guild, but he was simply too kind to be affiliated with a guild like that. No one that reacted that strongly and warmly to poor orphans could be evil.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Ah this is the life!" Natsu said happily, stretching himself to the limit near a lake. He was burning a fish he'd caught by the fire he'd set up. He probably wasn't going to be doing all that much for the next couple of days. He wanted to spend some time in the open wilderness away from everyone. It was also nice to be reunited with his white scaled scarf. One of the only two things he'd die before giving up. Considering it was the last thing he possessed that was from his father.

Though, now that he thought about it, the dragons _did_ just save him from getting executed. So he couldn't stay here for very long. They'd all start worrying about him, plus he had to start preparing for the council's move against. He knew letting that one council asshole go was dumb, showed him what was good about letting someone live; absolutely nothing. So now they could just comb this whole forest until they got found. This place wasn't that big.

A devious thought struck him, if the council was going to coordinate a large strike on his guild because they thought he was weak. They could do the same thing and attack Crocus. With help from some local dark guilds, they could _persuade_ to join their cause. Though, most criminals wouldn't actually need all that much convincing if a guild as powerful as Dragon's Keep said they were going to crush the council.

"Nah. That's dumb." Natsu said suddenly. "If we're gonna fix things, then maybe it's time for an image change."

But before he could think much harder at his current situation a loud roar that he was familiar with, got his attention.

"Looks like Billy's awake. Hmm, I wonder." Natsu put a hand underneath his chin and looked towards where the roar had emanated from and to his measly sized cooking fish. Then he looked back towards the roar, then back to his fish. He didn't need to think anymore.

With an excited grin Natsu grabbed the fish that was cooking and ate it rapidly before cracking his shoulders in excitement. He knew Billy's species was known to be tough, especially for a giant, and he was excited at the prospect of a challenge. Plus, Billy's species' horns sold for a real good price so it was a win win situation.

He couldn't contain his excitement and just started in a dead sprint towards the giant. Be it from the excitement or the prospect of a large amount of money, Natsu wasn't a man to let either blind him, but he still missed the tree branch jutting from the ground. It was just unfortunate he was at the top of a sharp hill.

Natsu became a rolling ball of expletives, screaming, and pain as he rolled down the hill. It only ended when he smacked face first into the hardest and sturdiest rock he'd ever smacked his face into.

And he'd smashed his face into a lot of rocks. Not on purpose of course.

"Ow. Ow. Ow." Natsu repeated with his new splitting headache. These type of accidental injuries always hurt so much damn more than when he got hit in a fight. Maybe it's because he wasn't prepared for these kinds of injuries, maybe that's the reason they hurt more.

"Excuse me, but are you all right?" He heard the voice come from beside him, and it sounded feminine. Slowly he got to his feet, maybe if he acted really hurt they'd carry him or something.

"No miss, I think I need to be carried to the nearest village." Natsu said grandiosely, he turned to see who exactly he was talking too.

The woman who'd found him had scarlet red hair. She was wearing a form fitting armor set made by Heart Kreuz that only was only the chest piece and gauntlets. The guild mark for Fairy Tail was underneath the gold emblem of Heart Kreuz and was proudly showing on the front of the chestpiece. She also wore knee high black combat boots with a plain blue skirt beginning out right where the armor stopped.

Natsu was more hung up on the skirt than he was the fact she was from Fairy Tail. "Who wears a skirt with a suit of armor?"

The woman raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I do."

The answer satisfied him. She just did. He went to say something again before he was literally swept off his feet and found himself being carried bridal style with one of her hands supporting his back and the other underneath his knees. Just like he'd asked her to do.

But even though he asked her to do it, he didn't think she'd actually go through with it. "Why are you carrying me?"

She again stared at him confused. "Because you asked me to? You just said you were too injured to walk."

Natsu stared back at her for a moment. The woman wasn't missing a beat with answering his question. Needless to say, he started laughing.

He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye before looking back at her with an amused smile. "Nah, I'm fine. I was just kidding, I wouldn't make a woman carry me."

The woman seemed almost offended, but not at what he thought. "You shouldn't pretend to be injured. It's irresponsible to just ask somebody to carry you if you aren't injured."

Her tone of voice carried a strange authority with it that Natsu wasn't used to hearing. Almost as if she was used to criticizing bad decisions and unorthodox people. Even though he knew she was a wizard, he decided to play dumb, after all she hadn't noticed who he was yet and he could have fun with that.

"The way you talk, are you like a teacher?" He asked her dumbly, he was still surprised she hadn't dropped him yet. Though he was a little more surprised that the effort it caused her to carry him didn't faze her in the slightest.

This time, the woman was the one to give a small laugh. "No, I'm a wizard of Fairy Tail. Erza Scarlet is my name."

Natsu didn't stop his eyes widening from surprise. _'What luck! Titania of Fairy Tail! She could actually be good fight! Maybe more so than Billy. Looks like you're going to figure out who I am! Lucky you too I guess.'_

Finally, Erza decided to stop carrying Natsu and let him stand a little distance away. "Your head wound, does it require assistance?"

Seems she thought his lack of a response to her saying she was a wizard made her think he might have been a tad dazed. Hell, he probably was. He touched the warm spot on his head and gave it a weird glance. He didn't even realize he'd spilt his head open he was so wrapped up in the conversation.

"Nah it's fine. Head wounds just bleed a lot you know? Ah, of course you know you're a wizard too." Natsu said casually, wiping away at the blood on his head which simply made more room for more blood to pour out from the wound. Much to his annoyance. Figures he didn't have any bandages.

"Here." Erza began, making a rag appear in her hand and wiping away at the pooling blood on his head. She then tore a piece of the cloth she just used to clean his head with, a clean section anyway, and used a bandage to keep it there.

Natsu tried to look at the wound amused and lightly touched his head. He was surprised when he didn't feel any pain. "There was anesthesia in that cloth?"

She nodded. "Yes. As well as an antibiotic. I like to be prepared."

He tilted his head in confusion. "But where did it come from?"

She pointed to herself. "My magic is **Requip** , it allows me to draw my armors and weapons from anywhere without dragging them all over with me. Not to say that I don't bring many things with me besides armors to be prepared."

He purposefully looked behind her, arms crossed, interested. "But there isn't anything there."

She pointed behind him, and when he looked he saw a large cart filled to the point of almost overflowing. With everything in it tied down with ropes to keep it from falling over.

"You do like to be prepared." Natsu began with a small chuckle. This woman was kind of a big bag of surprises. She was definitely interesting. "But as much as I like hanging out with you, I have a giant to go kill. And then eat."

"A giant? That's also what I'm here for. Why don't we handle it together? It would be safer if we worked together. Plus you seem a little out of it." Erza asked genuinely, but she acted like she was going to follow him and defeat the giant with or without his help. It was her mission after all.

Natsu decided to test her before agreeing. "I don't know, do you consider yourself a mage?"

Erza chuckled at the question. "Not really no."

"Then sorry-wait what?" Natsu began, but stopped when he heard her unexpected answer.

"Yes, I don't really consider myself a mage. Mages do whatever the magic council says whenever they say it. I, and pretty much all of Fairy Tail, kind of hate the council. And they in turn hate us. I consider myself as simply a member of Fairy Tail. Nothing more, nothing less. And I take great pride in that." Erza answered truthfully and honestly. She knew he was asking some sort of testing question from the way he held himself. But what he was testing she didn't know.

Natsu stared at her for a little bit in silence, before sighing to himself and turning around. "All right follow me, I know where he is. And he's more of a giant lizard than an actual giant person." He then started walking in the direction of Billy with his hands in his pockets. He stayed ahead of her so she wouldn't see the frown on his face at the answer she gave him. It irked him little.

Erza hastily grabbed the handle of her cart and pulled it with the same effort it took to carry Natsu. "I was wondering why you said you were planning to eat him. But I figured you'd explain it on your own eventually."

He didn't answer her statement about his eating habits. He was still rolling her answer from before around in his head. If she didn't consider herself a mage then that was fine, but he still considered her one. And it was a dilemma he hadn't faced before. He was actually planning to reveal who he was if she said yes. But now he had to deal with what her answer meant for the future.

He planned to fix the problems in this world, but if people like her existed then what would he do? Would it be the right thing to do or not? Though he was a little happy she made him realize this was potentially a problem right now than later down the road.

"I never got your name. You know mine, what's yours?" Erza asked suddenly, her new travelling companion had suddenly grown quiet and was ignoring her. Perhaps, if he was troubled, she could help him.

Oh well, he didn't really care. In the end it all came down to who _he_ considered a mage. The world already knew his name now thanks to the council, he still didn't know how they figured that out. With a bit of a dangerous smile he answered her.

"My name's Natsu. Natsu Dragneel."

Erza nodded. "That's a nice name. Does it mean anything?"

He _almost_ tripped over his own feet in surprise. _'She…she didn't recognize me? My name's nice? Only my friends have ever told me that.'_

But he realized he was ignoring her, and after she complimented his name that would be really rude. "N-No. It doesn't mean anything special. What about yours?" he almost smacked himself in the face at the stupidity of the question. But then he stopped himself from smacking himself.

Why did he care if she thought his question was stupid?

Natsu didn't see it, but Erza actually blushed slightly when she remembered the story behind her name. But since she asked if his name was special she really shouldn't lie. "Not really, but I was an orphan and a dear friend of mine gave it to me because it was the color of my hair."

The orphan story reminded him of his friends. All of them, except maybe Lisanna, were also orphans. And he'd given every one of them a home. But the two had gotten a little caught up in their conversation and Natsu and Erza were almost crushed by the giant foot of a green scaled lizard.

"We found our lizard Fairy! Let's dance!" Natsu shouted out in excitement, a fight would clear his head of his questions.

"You took the words right out of my mouth!" Erza agreed, requipping a sword into her hand and charging with Natsu.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

The dying cry of the demon was the last sound it made as Mirajane used her magic to ensure it didn't ever come back. Absorbing it's soul through her **Take Over: Satan Soul** magic. Sting watched with intrigue as it's body vanished inside his companion.

"That really is a cool magic you know? I didn't even know it was possible to suck in a demon's soul like that." He commented, genuinely impressed.

Mirajane smirked and flexed her arm, placing her other hand on top of her bicep. "Yep! I really am awesome. But I think it's time I head back. This was all I had to do. Your master was really scared of this guy?"

Sting laughed. "No, I just didn't want to bring you here at first." He waved goodbye until he realized he'd actually left the money from the carriage back in the town.

He quickly caught up to Mira who gave him a confused look. "Sorry, I left the money back in the village. I'm going to head back without you. Hopefully I see you later."

Mirajane stopped him. "Since I like you, not like that I have standards mind you, I'll head back with you. Plus I want to leave something for those kids. Since I forgot."

Sting smiled at the gesture. "All right, I'll stick with you a little while longer since you like me so much."

They continued to shoot back and forth at each other for a good while. A good time had passed since Sting expected to be back and he was probably going to catch some flak for skipping out on cleaning duties, which he was completely doing, as well as being late as shit. But in addition to being late, it looks like his brief taste of friendship outside of the guild would come to an end as well as collecting money.

Mirajane also noticed his reason. "Why are there so many council soldiers in the village?" She asked with sudden urgency, why would so many council soldiers show in the same place out of nowhere? It wasn't something either of them did, was it?

Sting laughed dryly. "Probably looking for me. Not surprised someone noticed me after my stunt in the middle of the town."

Mirajane looked at him as if he was crazy. "Why would the council be looking for you?" But as she asked the question, pieces started falling into place from earlier. Could he actually be a member of Dragon's Keep like she suspected?

"You know why I destroyed those Bandits? Because my guild has been paying them to steal from any passersby and this village!" He said darkly with a bitter laugh following his words. "They stopped giving us our cut and I came to punish them accordingly!"

"What's your name?" She demanded instantly. Her earlier suspicions seemed to be coming true and this new aura this guy was emitting was almost choking her.

He stared straight at her with the smuggest grin. "I don't know how you didn't figure it out. I saw you eyeing up my master's wanted poster. Ha! You're actually pretty thick you know?"

Mirajane became very angry and once again demanded to know his name, stepping back from the man while she was doing so and threw up a fighting stance. She recognized the aura this guy was emitting out of every pore; it was killing intent and it was frightening.

"You can call me Sting Eucliffe. Or what the council calls me." Sting began, stalking towards Mirajane until she backed up into a tree. And even then he still had his smug grin when he got in her face.

"Or White Dragon."

Mirajane suddenly felt a huge sense of betrayal and hurt. She didn't make many friends outside of the guild and this man, this monster now, seemed to be such a deep man. With his own problems but fully confident in who he is, what he wants, and what to do to get there.

"I bet that orphan story was all just a big lie! All of it! I bet you planted those kids there yourself didn't you? Admit it you selfish bastard!" Mirajane, was fuming, utterly livid and disgusted.

Sting smiled innocently now. Backing off a small distance from her. "Nope, everything I said to you is the truth, except my story about the demon. You couldn't scare my master no matter what you did!"

"You!" Mirajane suddenly used her **Take Over: Satan Soul** , but as soon as she did he was gone. Leaving absolutely no trace of his location, no magic, dust trail, or even a set of footprints to follow.

Sting had vanished.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"This lizard tastes like ass." Natsu said loudly and upset, swallowing the bit of food he had in his mouth he threw the lizard meat over his shoulder. He turned towards the, now dead, lizard with a frown on his face. "You taste like ass Billy!"

"While I don't agree with your choice of language." Erza said through a mouthful of lizard meat Natsu had also prepared a while ago. "I concur, for a lizard he does taste rather awful." She herself swallowed the lizard she was eating before following Natsu's example and tossing the meat to the side. Animals would eventually eat it anyway so it was fine.

But Natsu seemed to still be upset about it. "I've wondered how he'd taste for years! Years! I finally kill him and eat him and he tastes like an ass! Piece of shit disappointing ass lizard." He grumbled the last part to himself and kicked a nearby pebble.

Erza had a few questions for this mysterious man, namely what kind of magic he used. He had shouted a lot about fire dragons during his attacks and that had made her curious. Her curiosity almost became insatiable when she saw him actually _eat_ the fire the lizard spat at them.

"You have to tell me what kind of magic you use. It can't be something as simple as fire magic if you were comparing it to the fire of a dragon. No, it has to be something more special than that." Erza asked.

Natsu looked rather pleased with how she worded her question. "Why thank you! It is very special, it was taught to me straight by a fire dragon! The Fire Dragon King himself, Igneel!"

Natsu was always excited to talk about dragons and dragon slaying magic with someone other than his friends. They were all dragon slayers like him so they knew everything he would say and it made him bored with the subject. Of course, every time he told someone he was a dragon slayer, they all figured out who he was and what guild he was a part of. Whereupon he would either kill them if they were a mage and fought him, or knock them out if they were a simple civilian if they didn't run fast enough. Most civilians who asked were children though and killing children left a bad taste in his mouth, he'd only done it once and it was awful.

"A dragon taught you your magic? I thought all dragons were bloodthirsty?" Erza commented with a hand to her chin while she pondered over the fact that there were _more_ dragons out there than she knew and was wary of.

"Not all dragons are bloodthirsty! Who the hell gave you that idea?" Natsu asked, somewhat offended. If someone was spreading bad rumors about dragons he'd kill them.

"One of my guildmates actually fought a dragon recently, he-whoa!" The moment Erza said that one of her guildmates met a dragon, Natsu was close enough to her face for his breath to be felt on her face with both of his hands on her shoulders to keep her from moving.

"Your guildmate _met_ a dragon? He fought it? How the hell is he alive! When did he do it? Where did he do it? Actually forget all that." Natsu fired off his questions faster than she had any hope of answering them. She could understand his obsession with dragons if he was raised by one. He backed off all of a sudden, leaving Erza with a weird sensation when she realized how warm his breath actually was. The air took quite the noticeable temperature drop.

"Sorry about that. Start from the top please. What did the dragon look like?" Natsu sat directly across from her, and for the first time since she met him, he was completely serious and giving her his absolute undivided attention.

"All right, if I remember right, it was mainly black and white. With some blue scales in a fancy pattern on its wings. Also on its face." Erza said, she had a hand underneath her chin so she could try and remember as many details as possible.

"Hmm, doesn't look like any of the dragons I'm looking for. If you were struggling to remember what it looked like, then I doubt you remember where he found it." Natsu said sadly. Details like that usually got lost somewhere along the way so people could fit more grandiose tales about how they think the creature looked like.

"Actually I do remember where he found it. Over in those ancient holy mountains." Erza seemed satisfied when Natsu's eyes actually lit up like a child's. He really seemed to care about dragons.

Natsu continued to grill every little bit of information out of Erza about the dragon as he could get her to remember. From where exactly in the mountains it was, when her guildmate encountered it, and what time of the year it was. He even asked if it talked and looked like a bitch or not.

"One last piece about the dragon." Erza said seriously, getting Natsu's attention since he was about to leave. "That dragon made our strongest member look like a complete fool. And he's far stronger than me. Probably much stronger than you as well."

At this Natsu openly laughed and slapped his knee. "Of course he lost to a dragon. Humans don't stand a chance against them. The only way to even hurt a dragon, let alone kill one, is to be a dragon slayer. And the only way to do that is to have a dragon teach you its own magic. Or you could have a dragon slayer lacrima implanted in you. But those people aren't real dragon slayers, and I only know of one person who is one."

Erza put a hand to her chin in curiosity. "How does one become a dragon slayer? And what are the humans to the dragons who teach them?"

Natsu's eyes lit up almost as bright as the stars in the sky, something that was refreshing from the dullness that was usually in them. "Oh I didn't say? Oh well, to be a dragon slayer you have to be taught it by a dragon like I said. But a dragon has to choose you. You can't walk up to one and ask, I mean, you probably can if you could find one but they'd say no. Or at least that's what my dad always said is what happened."

Erza's eyebrow raised in confusion. "You're father? Was he some sort of dragon expert?"

Natsu snorted when he tried to hold in his laughter. "Nah, when a dragon teaches you their magic they do it from your birth. They feed you and clothe you and teach you. To me he was my father. To my friends they were also their parental figure."

Erza nodded her head, not really understanding how dragons can use magic let alone teach it. So she asked one more question that was on her mind. Something she was curious about since he'd brought attention to it.

He had begun to gaze hungrily at the giant again, almost as if he forgot how bad it tasted. So she coughed lightly to get his attention. "Do you have something against mages Natsu?"

"I despise them more than anything in the world." His answer was immediate and almost robotic, like it was something he never had to think about.

But Erza was a little confused at this, Natsu was a mage himself was he not? So she decided to voice her concerns. "But you're a mage yourself Natsu. Isn't that a bit odd?"

He looked her directly in the eyes with a serious gaze, but something else was hidden behind that seriousness and it made her feel uneasy. Not threatened, but uneasy. "You said it yourself Erza, mages do whatever the council says. And while you may not like the council, you'll eventually obey it. Won't you?"

Her brow furrowed in confusion before she attempted to look serious again. "Well yes. I guess you're right about that. But what does that-"

He cut her off with a small, quick, and dry laughter. " _Criminals_ , Erza, don't listen to the council. And they're the only people whom I don't hate on sight. And that's what I am. A _criminal_."

Erza was surprised, sure he was a little rough around the edges, but she didn't expect him to be a criminal.

Just as he was turning to leave the little camp the two had set up, Erza stood and stared at him hard. "You wouldn't happen to be a member of Dragon's Keep, would you _Natsu?_ "

Natsu stopped in his tracks at the question, at the moment his back was turned to her and she couldn't see his face or his reaction. But when he started laughing she had her answer.

"And if I am?" He said simply, turning to face her with a smile on his face that showed he didn't really care if she knew or not. He was going to tell her originally anyway.

Erza merely scoffed at the question and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Please, do you take me for a fool? You're sitting here talking at length about dragons and dragon slayers. I didn't think anything of it by your appearance. Because there are many coincidences. But everything you've told me is just proof of who you are."

He smiled widely, and if he wasn't such an insane man it would almost seem heartwarming, and began a mocking slow clap. "Congrats! You figured out who I am! You're so smart!"

Erza's stare turned into a hard glare at the insult. But he continued before she could say anything back. "Please note that I was going to tell you who I was anyway. You know why Erza?"

She remained silent, but requipped a single sword in her hand and prepared for a sudden attack.

"Because I think you'll be a fun distraction! Tell Makarov I said 'hey' would you?" He said before sighing, dropping his smile in the process, and turning around to walk away. No attack, no threat, not even a promise to fight her one day.

He stuck his hands into his pockets and continued to walk away from the stunned redhead. Whom was staring at the open palm of her hand in a furious silent rage.

 _'He didn't even attack! Yet I'm almost shaking. This is pathetic, I care not who he is! I will defeat him and drag him to the council myself!'_

Yet even though she convinced herself she would attack him, nothing resulted from that conclusion. She still stood there, staring at her now shaking hand and breathing heavily. But eventually her own shame and anger beat out her fear and she yelled out for him to stop.

He did, which means she managed to keep her voice from shaking which she was thankful for, and merely looked back at her with a bored look. "Why? You'll lose."

"It doesn't matter if you're stronger than me. What matters is that I defeat you and stop you're meaningless rampage and slaughtering!" Erza said powerfully, actually making Natsu turn to completely face her with a disappointed look. Though it wasn't something she liked one bit.

With a disappointed shake of his head, Natsu responded to her claims. "Meaningless? Yeah, it was for a while. But lately, it got a purpose again. Tomorrow, little Erzie, I'm going to go destroy a village again. Haven't done it in a while. So…"

He then grinned widely and threw his arms out to the side, coating them in the terrifyingly powerful flames that he was known for. But the flames that rose off of his arms sucked in the fire from the campfire and snuffed it out, and with that they almost formed the visage of an enormous dragon. Even his eyes seemed to glow red in the bath of his fire.

"Stop me Titania!"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Yo! I'm back!" Sting announced loudly to the, now finished with chores, guild.

"Hello Sting!" Wendy and Lisanna said in unison. Gajeel flipped him off and Rogue simply waved lazily at him while reading a book.

Sting mocked being greatly offended, clutching at his chest and leaning against a nearby table dramatically. "Why is it no one cares about me? I love all of you equally as much as I love dirt! Why can't you worship the ground I-HRK!"

Gajeel handily interrupted Sting mid rant by turning his arm into a sturdy iron pole and knocking him into the bar.

Sting saw stars when he finally realized he was awake. But then he quickly shook it off and got serious as he turned to address Lisanna.

"Lisanna, you have to think as hard as you can about this all right? Don't skip out on it because you're scared or worried about my reaction. Or anyone's reaction who's present. Okay?" Sting said with a dead serious look on his face.

Everyone paid attention to what he was saying, especially Lisanna. Sting was the one who always seemed to stumble into pieces of Lisanna's past. And it looked like he'd found another.

Lisanna nodded firmly and put the glass she was cleaning down. "Yes, I promise."

Sting sucked in nervous breath. Should he be blunt or just go easy for now? "Well, I need to know just one thing before I tell you." He decided to pull his punch completely. "Do you have any family? Any that you remember?"

Lisanna put a hand to her chin and combed through every memory she had regained since the 'accident' as Natsu called it, but through them all she wasn't able to come up with any siblings. Just her with more hair.

She sighed sadly, Sting always tried so hard to help her. "No, I'm sorry."

Sting decided to wing it, it wouldn't hurt anything if she didn't remember. "Does the name Mirajane Strauss ring and bells?"

Again, Lisanna did the same thing, while the name did put her a little more at ease, it didn't trigger anything else. So with another sigh she shook her head.

Sting got a little visibly upset. "Dammit! I'm going to my room for the night!"

After a little bit, the slamming of Sting's door echoed throughout the guild. They all shared a glance, he always took it personally when he failed to help Lisanna.

But Rogue tried to switch the topic. "I noticed he wasn't wearing any stockings. I do believe he forgot to get the money."

Gajeel shrugged. "He's in a bad mood, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he thought he had something again."

In a little bit of a worse mood now, everyone continued on with whatever it was that they were doing.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Erza's vision turned red and a livid expression adorned her face. The fact he would talk about slaughtering an entire village so casually, as if it was a game, made her physically disgusted. Her anger completely swallowed up her fear and anxiety about fighting him and she charged him.

She was on him in a matter of moments, with a launch powerful enough to rip up the terrain she was standing on and a speed at which surprised even her. His cockiness was almost his undoing when her sword came inches from splitting him in half.

He took a single step backward in order to lean back far enough to dodge her next horizontal swipe. But she was quick, using her foot she swiped the unsecured feet of Natsu out from underneath him and watched his eyes widen as he started to fall to the ground. Immediately she attempted to drive her sword into his abdomen, looking for the only chance she had, a quick and immediate victory.

But Natsu showed an unexpected nimbleness and landed on his hands before jumping out of the way just as Erza's sword drove into the ground up to the hilt. With a little more excitement on his face, he charged her while her sword was jammed in the ground. But she again surprised him by requipping a sword into her other hand and slashing out with it, abandoning the sword that was still in the ground.

Natsu just managed to duck underneath the blow and get inside her guard. Something she wasn't expecting him to do so fast and accurately, and charged his fist with his flames before punching her hard in her armored abdomen. He felt the armor shatter underneath his punch and her loud scream of anguish fill his ears and the air, that was previously inside Erza's lungs, rush past his face and rustle his hair.

He relaxed for a moment, believing the fight to be over. But he was too slow to realize that she had a small grin on her face before he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He screamed out in pain as Erza twisted the blade she'd requipped into her free hand and kneed the stunned man in the chin as hard as she could. Giving them a tiny bit of distance and her a moment of respite.

She paused for just a moment to recoil from the pain the punch caused her stomach and lamented the power difference between them. But she recovered before the twitching Natsu did and requipped another blade in her hand and slashed at his shoulder. Even though she'd swung as hard as she could and intended to cleave him in two, the wound didn't go very deep and the sword merely was lodged in his shoulder. She paused in astonishment, her blades were razor sharp and she made sure of that, how the hell did this not just cleave the man in two?

He yelled out again and reacted to the pain more than responded to it. He ripped out the dagger in his back and tackled her to the ground. He blocked the arm going out to punch him and used the dagger to block the sword from coming to stab him again.

He was breathing heavily and there was a grim and twisted expression on his face.

"You know…I didn't think you'd be as strong as you are! These new scars of mine…are a trophy that you'll have for the rest of your life! But you should also be sad! If you didn't stab me earlier, your little dagger wouldn't have stopped you from cleaving me in half!" He was grunting with the strain it was causing his wounded shoulder to hold back her arm that didn't have a weapon.

"I'd rather have your head!" She spit back at him with the same fire and ferocity she was fighting him with.

He ginned from ear to ear and this time it didn't frighten her. Suddenly, he slammed her hand into the ground with little resistance and smashed the blade out of her other hand with just pure strength, he'd shattered both blades in the process but that gave him the opportunity to completely pin her down by holding both her hands above her head. She was stunned, where did this sudden immense strength come from? She was snapped out of her battle frenzied mind set and become much more aware of her surroundings and current situation.

He continued grinning at her, but now his eyes reflected that true madness that came from his soul. "You know, lots of people would do lots of bad things to you in this position! Lots of criminals I know though consider taking advantage of a woman a worse crime than murder!"

A chill ran down Erza's spine and she suddenly felt far more afraid than before. Natsu wasn't _that_ type of criminal was he? If he was…she was starting to become afraid she might not be able to stop him.

But he shook his head back and forth, never breaking eye contact or losing his maddened gaze. "But that's not true! Murder is the worst crime one can commit! Because if you rape someone they are still alive! And if you rape someone they'd still be alive."

He was breathing more uneven and his actions became even more unpredictable and uncomforting when he got right in front of her face. "But then sometimes rape victims get suicidal! But they usually don't! And if rape was the worst crime anyone ever did then she…" His eyes widened in realization of what he'd just said and his eyes fogged over as he suddenly became trapped in his own head.

His breathing became stable, but shallow and harsh, his insane look turned into one of anguish with tears pooling at the edge of his eyes as he strangely began looking at her as if she wasn't the one there. Then Erza's fears were completely replaced with shock as something warm and wet landed on her face.

Natsu's hair now blocked his eyelids, and his whole body was shaking violently, but she could clearly see tears flowing down his face and he didn't seem to notice or care.

"She wouldn't have died…that _bastard_ wouldn't have killed her! He would have just hurt her! Then I would have killed him for hurting her! Then I wouldn't be this monstrosity that I am…then I wouldn't feel her constant disappointed gaze on me every time I committed another sin in her name!" He was yelling now, shaking his head back and forth rapidly. The tears on his face hitting wherever they fell, be they on her face or the dirt.

But eventually he stopped and stared at her, he looked at her as he was on the verge of sobbing. The whole act had completely stunned her, she had absolutely no idea what to do.

"Why did she die? Why is that fucking killer still walking around this planet without an ounce of regret? Why wasn't I there to protect her? Why isn't he dead? Why can't I take her place? This world would be a better one without me! WHY? WHY? WHY?" He was completely screeching at her, demanding answers from a situation that she had no idea of how to answer.

From…something, she didn't know, Natsu collapsed off of her and fell unconscious. She truly had no idea if it was mental stress or the three inch cut she'd made in his shoulder, just a little lower and she would have killed him. But from his reaction just now, he might have wanted her to do it.

She saw the sword she'd jammed in the ground at the beginning of the fight, and her mind began racing. _'He's right there, unconscious, wounded, mentally anguished. I could do it, right now I could just take that sword and stab him through the heart.'_

There was a very clear option for her to take hear, crystal, and yet she couldn't make herself grab the sword and kill the man in front of her. Instead, she shakily got up, amazed that a single punch had created a yellowish purple bruise already. If she wasn't wearing armor and he wasn't holding back she might be dead right now.

She pulled the sword out of the ground and limped over to him. She turned back and stood next to the unconscious Natsu and began writing a message in the dirt. After she was done, she jammed the sword right at the end of the message, it would surely be the first thing he saw when, or if, he ever woke up.

But she walked off without requiping another sword because Erza Scarlet does not use a cane.

* * *

 **A/N: It's probably obvious what happened to Natsu a while ago. But hell maybe it isn't, I mean it's obvious to me because I already know. But maybe it's less to you guys than I think.**

 **One last note before I leave, I'm not going to include all the arcs. Just the ones that will fit in my version without seeming forced. That said, the actual first arc of the story commences next episode...I mean chapter.**

 **Goodbye.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Back again with the next chapter. There wasn't much I wanted to do with Galuna Island so I just kind of put necessary plot here. I _really_ wanted to squeeze in one more fight scene, but it got pretty long as it is now. So I had to cut it. The chapter was originally 20,000K words before I cut it down. So some stuff had to get cut and rewritten for everything to flow correctly.**

 **You may have also figured out this by now, but Natsu and Jellal's past grudges is explained in context. Sort of.**

 **Anyway, please enjoy and leave a review if you did enjoy it.**

* * *

Natsu didn't come back the same day that Sting did, while they had all agreed that he might be enjoying himself and his recently attained freedom, Wendy still couldn't shake the bad feelings that continued to stick to her mind like a disease. But her fears were proven right when Natsu finally _did_ come back the next morning.

He'd kicked the entrance door off of its hinges, telling everyone inside that he was _mad_. Wendy rushed to see what was wrong and recoiled in shock at the state of her friend. An action that was mirrored by the rest of the guild as Natsu stormed inside and immediately sat down on a nearby chair.

He'd come in looking like he'd singlehandedly fought an entire war on his own. He had lacerations all over his body, some were still bleeding. Patches of his skin were rubbed off from being blown away by something. His clothes and his body was covered in sticky grime and his own blood. But the worst of his wounds was the stab wound in his back and the extremely deep slice in his shoulder. They didn't notice it at first, but Rogue eventually pointed out a set of ruined magic restraint cuffs on his hands. But even with his many wounds, he seemed to not be really hampered by them or the cuffs anymore.

When Wendy immediately began treating him the only response he would give to her was a furious stare and that he'd been found unconscious by a group of close to two hundred council members. He woken up in a carriage from a nearby village and it took him nearly an hour to break the restraints they put on him.

And after he escaped he'd killed every single one of them.

He stubbornly refused to even stare any of them in the eye, let alone answer any of their questions. And as soon as Wendy finished treating him to the extent he _let_ her treat him he got up and angrily walked to his office. Which itself was an act he rarely did.

"What the hell was that?" Lisanna asked in confusion and worry.

This wasn't the first time that Natsu had come back like this, beaten, broken, bloody, and more furious than they'd ever seen him be. But the last time he did this, Lisanna was not part of their group. She had only been part of their group for three years. The last time Natsu had been this utterly furious was when he had just formed the guild with Wendy and Gajeel six years ago. A couple years before Sting and Rogue had joined. But at that time, he'd just been utterly defeated by a couple of wizards and he vowed vengeance. Those wizards were long dead now because of that vow.

But Wendy wasn't sure what to do about this anger, it was even greater then it was all those years ago. She didn't even know what to do. Gajeel though, frowned at seeing his master get so angry over simply losing a battle. So he knew with a certainty that that wasn't it.

"I'll be right back." Gajeel exclaimed, getting up and leaving his unfinished alcohol behind. Something Rogue caught.

"Gajeel never leaves his alcohol unfinished." Rogue mumbled to himself, Gajeel had always finished his alcohol, even that one time a dark guild attacked he chugged it while beating fools unconscious.

"Oi Natsu!" Gajeel began, shutting the door behind him. "What the hell is…your…problem…" Gajeel's eyes widened as his ears heard the sound of crying and his eyes saw his master trying hard to stop himself from crying out.

"Natsu?" Gajeel asked in concern, he walked up to the opposite side of the desk and placed a hand on his friends shoulder. He'd never seen him cry like this since…

"I fucked up Gajeel. I fucked up bad." Natsu began, with a broken smile he wiped the tears from his face and looked up at his friend. "I didn't want anyone to see me like this. But I should have known you'd show up."

Gajeel ignored the fact he was crying. "What the hell happened out there? This doesn't involve Janice…does it?"

All Natsu could do was simply nod his head before he simply buried his head in his hands again. He didn't devolve into hysterical sobbing, but he wasn't far from it. "I lost the ring Gajeel."

Gajeel simply sighed and grabbed a nearby chair and sat beside Natsu for a while. He kept himself occupied by counting the seconds going by on the clock bit by bit.

"All right Gajeel, I'm calm enough now to tell you what happened." Natsu said suddenly, perking up enough and looking apologetically at his friend.

"Don't force yourself." Gajeel said with a smile.

Natsu smiled sadly. "After I tell you, I need you and Wendy to do something for me. I don't like giving you guys actual missions much, but it's something I need you to do. Rogue and Sting will go on their own thing too."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

It seemed his worst fears came true, Makarov was still going over what Mirajane and Erza had told him of their most recent encounters. But, if both encounters had been resolved as peacefully as Mirajane's was then he wouldn't need to be concerned. Mirajane had acted in what she believed would need to be self defense, having heard many horror stories that the dragons had all been blamed for. She was willing, but unhappy mind you, to throw away her pride and run away at the first chance she got. She wasn't willing to engage one of the renowned dragons without some form of back up.

But Erza, on the other hand, was the complete opposite situation. Not only did she run into one of the dragons, she ran into Natsu. Of all the ones she could have run into, she managed to run into and engage one of the few mages he himself was scared to fight against. And she fought him of her own volition.

And that was the worst part. She instigated their fight on a selfish desire to stop his crazy acts, he was willing to leave with no fight and let Erza be on her way. But Erza had acted rashly and idiotically in a sorry attempt to stop him from going to slaughter another village. The final encounter had still left her shaken with how easily her life, and whatever else he would have wanted, could have been taken from her. He'd driven some metal fragments into her stomach from her shattered armor and caused some major damage to her internal organs. But that wasn't the last of her injuries by a long shot.

She was also covered by intense burns on over seventy percent of her body. A couple of broken ribs, most of her armors being shattered, and her right hand had been utterly crushed. According to Erza, from what she remembered after he'd defeated her, Natsu had grasped her hand so tightly he'd broken her gauntlet and turned the bones in her hand to splinters.

Right now, Makarov was trying to figure out how he should feel. He knew he should feel angry, but he didn't. All he felt was relief. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Erza was the entire reason that the fight happened in the first place and Natsu was forced to defend himself.

But still, the situation might as well have been an adult defending themselves from a child's pretend game of murder.

Makarov sighed and finished his letter to the council. Despite how he should feel, one of his children were harmed by Dragon's Keep, and another very well could have been if it weren't for the timely arrival of the council soldiers.

 _'The council...that's another barrel of problems on its own.'_ Makarov thought to himself with a deep frown.

When Natsu had broken out of his execution, for some reason he didn't actually murder anybody sent after him, not even a dangerous man like Siegrain who could genuinely pose a threat and recapture him. And none of them had the excuse of, apparently, being someone Natsu held dear. But this time…

This time, he'd slaughtered close to two hundred soldiers in blood rampage that Erza again caused. After he'd fallen unconscious, Erza had quickly made it to a nearby village whereupon she met Mirajane who'd just finished her encounter White Dragon, or Sting Eucliffe, and the two led the council soldiers to where Natsu was to apprehend him and make sure he didn't escape.

But Natsu had suddenly regained consciousness and Erza had ordered Mirajane to evacuate the village while she kept him busy. He'd apparently flown into an uncontrollable rage and quickly overpowered her. Even her armors that reduced flames effectiveness were useless. Soon enough Natsu had killed every soldier and beaten Erza to within an inch of her life.

He didn't know how she escaped, she couldn't even remember herself from what she told him. Mirajane had carried her back to the guild. But Makarov wasn't the only person who was battling with his emotions, Fairy Tail itself was _furious._ Many of the mages of Fairy Tail were hounding Makarov to do something about Dragon's Keep.

That something being all out war.

They had all demanded war, even Laxus was a little taken aback at the condition Erza was in. Laxus wouldn't ever admit it, but Erza was powerful enough to challenge him, and the fact she was completely annihilated by Red Dragon made him itch to fight the man. But he wouldn't be seen helping his grandfather at all. He'd do it his own way. At least he would try.

Makarov was a smart man, one of the reasons he wasn't sad about being old, and he told the guild of the council's mission to recruit members from the top guilds to finally put this brutish guild out of commission. He made an announcement that he would choose the four most powerful mages to assist the council's mission and that they all had a single month to prepare and prove to be the strongest. His claim was met with the guild flying into action, every member snagged a mission almost as soon as he was done talking. Everyone wanted a piece of Dragon's Keep, but everyone saw Makarov's wisdom in choosing only the best. So everyone desired to be those people.

So, the only members left in the entire guild were Team Erza; Makarov had left to finish some work in his office, which was still in the guild so technically he hadn't left. Team Erza consisted of Erza obviously, Mirajane whom actually shared a fiery rivalry with the woman, Gray Fullbuster, and Lucy Heartfilia.

Gray Fullbuster is an **Ice Make** wizard. This allowed him to make, pretty much whatever he wanted out of ice. And he was one of the people who really helped Erza feel welcome in their guild. As well as being a childhood friend where she would reprimand him for his unruly behavior; as well as the entire guild's behavior. Gray was a well built man, with well defined muscles, and generally went without a shirt in the guild and anywhere where he didn't notice he stripped it off. He also had a metal cross that actually never seemed to get knocked off or taken off. He also had shortish spiky black hair and had kind of a cold personality. His guild mark was only visible while his shirt was off, being blue and on his right pectoral.

Lucy Heartfilia is a **Celestial Spirit Mage**. Her magic allows her to summon the Celestial Spirits of the world and use them for technically anything if they were willing and she obeyed the summoning contracts that the spirits imposed to be summoned. She had long blonde hair that was bound up in a ponytail or bun most of the time. She wore a simple white button up blouse top with a blue stripes going along the entire front of the outfit in the shape of a plus. She also wore black boots and a blue skirt. Her guild mark was pink and on the back of her right hand.

The only reason Gray hadn't left the guild was because he was simply too angry to do so. Lucy hadn't left because she was helping to treat Erza's wounds. Mira hadn't left because Gray had things he wanted to ask of her.

"Take me on an S-Class mission." Gray said, staring at Mirajane angrily from opposite the table.

Mira sighed and crossed her arms. "I can't do that Gray. You aren't ready for one. Besides, I gotta get ready for the attack on Dragon's Keep. The missions I'm willing to take you on are too simple for me."

Gray grit his teeth and his frown from what he'd been wearing all afternoon deepened. "I'm more than ready, the only reason I'm not S-Class myself is because I had to fight you last year for it."

Lucy had just exited the infirmary and sat down on the verge of tears. Seeing someone like Erza, who had seemed completely invincible during their Lullaby mission, in such a dire state had terrified her to the core of the power Dragon's Keep possessed. Sure, she wanted payback just as much as everybody, but her spirits and her own mediocre physical ability wouldn't last them very long. So she sat down next to Gray and rested her head on her hands. Listening intently to Gray and Mirajane's conversation.

Mirajane sighed again. Gray was stubborn about everything, especially when he was this upset. "I can't do it Gray. You know what happened the last time I took someone on an S-Class mission. I'm not about to make that mistake again."

Her comment seemed to knock Gray out of his angry stupor and made him avoid her eyes in shame. Mira's glare softened and she put a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault, you're more than strong enough for S-Class, but I can't risk that again. When you are S-Class though, I'll gladly take you on one. All right?"

Gray looked back up at her eyes and felt a little better about himself. "Thanks Mira. I'm a little messed up in the head right now, I'm going to take a walk to clear my head."

"That might be for the best." Mira agreed and watched as Gray dejectedly got up and left the guild, with all of his clothes on for a change.

"Is Dragon's Keep too strong? What happens if they attack? Can we handle them?" Lucy said suddenly, it had been a fear of hers since she'd seen Erza get carried inside the guild half dead.

"No talking like that Luce." Mirajane said harshly, even if Dragon's Keep did attack they would be fine. That she knew for a fact. "I know you're new to this kind of battling and anger. But you'll have to deal with it. Fairy Tail is the number one guild in all of Fiore. And that wimpy Dragon's Keep isn't even the top dark guild. So we ain't got nothing to worry about."

Lucy felt better about her fears and also simultaneously felt worse about herself. She had doubted the guild's ability and for that she felt terrible. "I'm sorry. I'm just-"

Mirajane cut her off with a soft smile. "Don't worry about it. I can understand why you're scared. Hell I'm scared, if I had to fight Red Dragon like Erza did I'd be terrified. But master has already said he could handle Red Dragon, so there's no reason to be so scared you doubt your own guild."

Lucy perked up at the encouraging words from Mirajane. "I'm going to follow everyone else's example and be as strong as I can be! I'm going to give it my all and be the best I can be!"

Lucy immediately went to the board and grabbed one of the few remaining missions and walked up to Mirajane. "Watch me come back with my rent money tenfold!."

Mirajane smirked at Lucy's enthusiasm. "That's the spirit Luce! Knock 'em dead!"

While Mirajane said she had to prepare for the mission against Dragon's Keep, she actually was going to go to her own private training field and begin its total and utter destruction. She had lots of anger built up from carrying Erza back, and unfortunately Erza was in no shape to get in a brawl.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

 _Erza could barely keep conscious, her body demanded that she give up. The burns, the bruises, the broken bones, her shattered pride. All of it managed to overpower her will and keep her on the ground, hoping beyond hope that Natsu believed he'd already killed her._

 _Everything was quiet now, this was the first time she was ever exposed to this kind of brutality. It was almost as bad as her time in the Tower of Heaven seven years ago. But with those memories, came a burning desire to fight the one who had caused all of this bloodshed. She slowly, ever so slowly, rolled onto her stomach and used a nearby spear to hoist herself off of the ground. She'd run out of magic to use **Requip** sometime ago, she couldn't even recognize what armor she was wearing at the moment._

 _But while she was crawling to her feet, the very man she was looking for appeared before her, covered head to toe in dirt, blood that was both his and others, and many new wounds than she'd left him with. But she was unable to stop him from kicking her over onto her back and kneeling down beside her._

 _He stared at her with a blissful look on his face. 'Of course he'd have a face like that after everything he'd just done.' She thought bitterly._

 _He pulled her useless right hand close to his face and placed it against his cheek. The feeling of blood, wounds, and being forced to touch him made her want to vomit. But then he started to crush her hand with the same blissful look on his face until she screamed out. The agonizing pain fueling her body with the adrenaline needed to get her body away from whatever was causing it, to bad her body was too damaged to move anymore._

 _She saw his lips moving while he was crushing her hand and trying to pry his hand off of hers, but she couldn't hear what he'd said over her own yells. But as soon as she started desperately clawing at his hand with her nails he stopped and dropped her hand. She immediately brought her hand to her chest to try and simply do something for it, like pull her destroyed gauntlet off. But he tilted his head to the side and caught her attention again after she had calmed down and removed the gauntlet._

 _"Did I break your hand?" He asked with a twinge of guilt. "Sorry about that."_

 _Through everything she was still just barely able to speak. "Why?"_

 _He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why did I do this?" He said, motioning to the burning landscape and many dead bodies. "Or why did I not kill you?"_

 _She gritted her teeth in frustration. This bastard…"All of it!"_

 _"Well." He began, moving to sit down next to her. "I killed all of them because they were trying to kill me. Simple enough right? You would have done the same given my situation."_

 _She wasn't even able to call him a bastard before he continued on. "But I didn't kill you because you remind me of someone I used to love."_

 _She was silenced then, how was she supposed to respond to that? Wait, loved? As in past tense?_

 _Before she could ask, Natsu clarified for her with a pained smile that had long since moved on, or at least had tried it's best to do so. "But I'll never get to see her again since Jellal killed her."_

 _She was struck at her core from those words. Jellal created this monster? He couldn't be serious. She had to know. "You are familiar…with Jellal?"_

 _Natsu shook his head. "No, I only ever met the man once. And I killed him when I did. Or at least I thought I did. Turns out he's still alive." He stopped with his reminiscence and stared hard at her._

 _"You aren't in cahoots with the bastard are you?" He asked, or rather demanded, of her._

 _Now what was she supposed to do? Spill the beans about her relationship with Jellal? Or risk all of her friends lives that were being held captive at the tower? She couldn't risk their lives, it wasn't her right to do so. The most she was able to do was stare off to the side and shake her head._

 _He put a handover his mouth in concentration before snapping his fingers like he'd realized something. "Something you won't tell me? Or is it that you can't tell me?"_

 _"How did-" She had begun to say, but was able to stop herself from continuing by biting mouth until it drew blood._

 _Natsu nodded suddenly. "That's what I thought. Well, I can help put your mind at ease. In two months, I'm going to Jellal's stupid fucking tower. And I'm going to kill everyone in it who isn't a slave. I'll even hire someone to draw Jellal's corpse for you after I tear out his throat."_

 _He was going to stop Jellal? No, that was her job, she refused to let someone else do it. "No, I will…stop Jellal…myself!"_

 _She had managed to force herself up to the point she could sit up and do the last thing her beaten body was able to do and glare angrily into the man's eyes._

 _He was silent at the proclamation. She had accidentally revealed that she had a past conflict with Jellal. And if there was anything Natsu liked, people who hated Jellal were definitely up there._

 _He smiled genuinely. "Tell you what, meet me at Akane Resort in two months. You and I will destroy that tower together. That sound good enough? Because you aren't doing it alone, and I'd feel bad if I didn't let someone who was angry with Jellal get their shot at him."_

 _She had absolutely no reason to trust him, but with his strength and power she would definitely be able to defeat Jellal and his crazy idea of the tower. But there was no way to stop him from doing whatever he pleased so how could she agree to work with this mass murdering monster?_

 _"Ah. I've got it." Natsu began suddenly, bringing his hand up to the side and into her view. "You don't trust me right? Here, I'll give you my most precious possession."_

 _He then pulled the ring off of his finger and grasped her other hand that wasn't broken, and placed it inside her palm and gently closed her fist around it. "If, in the future, I demand this ring back, do not give it back. Defend it from me with your life."_

 _She was confused, what the hell was he doing? But he continued on undeterred. Still grasping the hand that held the ring. "If you do this for me." He began with a peaceful smile on his face. "I'll turn myself in when I get it back on my hand. Deal?"_

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Erza rolled the ring around in her hand curiously, she knew a little bit more about Natsu then she would really like to know. But it made her question his brutality. When she'd asked Makarov why Natsu was such a mass murderer, she'd received Makarov's story about how he'd met him as a child, and that he left sometime afterwards. As far as Makarov had learned, he lost something that was his entire world. Now she might have just learned what that something was.

She could sympathize with that, he'd lost someone he truly loved, but it didn't sway her opinion on the man one bit, Natsu was a despicable man. But, when he'd said that she, Erza, reminded him of that person, that didn't mean that he…loved her. Did it? She could feel the vomit in her mouth already as the sight of him professing his love to her played out in her head.

But she was interested in one thing about him though. He'd said he destroyed the tower and 'killed' Jellal six years ago. By that time Jellal had taken over the tower, could Natsu have killed her other friends already?

It would be very easy for him to have done something like that, but just as she was beginning to see red, she shook the anger from her head. Natsu may have been a horrible killer, but she had this strange suspicion that his killings were targeted and discriminatory. As much as she was looking forward to the mission to crush Dragon's Keep in a month, she also dreaded what his answers to her questions would be.

Though, something else concerned her as well. The ring was extremely plain, though it only had a small inscription on the inside, she had a desire to put it on. She was originally going to keep the ring an extremely closely guarded secret, but maybe she should tell just one other person about it. Just to be safe.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

It was the dead of night, everyone in Fairy Tail had left for their homes. Well, everyone except one had. And that one person, was Gray Fullbuster. He'd made his decision even before Mirajane had shot him down, after he was though, he went all around town and memorized every single member of Dragon's Keep's face, sadly he could only find Red Dragon, Black Dragon, and White Dragon. He'd also took special care to memorize Red Dragon's face, if anyone was going to beat him into the dirt where he came from it would be him.

But at his current strength, he'd have a hard time defeating Red Dragon if Erza couldn't do it. So, to increase his power the best way he knew how, he stole a S-Class mission request when no one was there. He needed to get as strong as he possibly could and he wouldn't let a little thing like rank get in his way.

That had been hours ago, since then he'd made it all the way to Hargeon Town. And apparently, no one wanted to go and sail to a cursed island. Why? Because it was cursed and that was pretty much the only answer he got.

After he was about to just give up and swipe a little rowboat himself, someone finally agreed to sail him all the way to the island.

"So what is so cursed about this island?" Gray asked the man, He was wearing a full body cloak with only his head being visible. His boat was rather small, big enough for maybe six people; but it would surely do for just him.

"It's inhabited by demons." The man answered simply.

Gray didn't really bother asking anymore questions, he'd ask them on the boat ride over to the island. If he asked all his questions now it would just be a boring, silent, awkward, and long boat ride. It didn't take much more time for Gray to take the man up on his offer. Since it was the only one being offered.

After a couple of minutes at sea, Gray asked a question. "What do you mean the island is inhabited by demons?"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"You okay now, Natsu?" Wendy asked once the two of them left his office. She'd been immensely worried the entire time Gajeel got Natsu's colorful story.

"Yeah, but I'm going to have to get over this on my own time you know?" Natsu said, it was obvious he still negatively affected by what was bothering him. "I'll tell you guys when we get back, but for now we need to prepare."

Sting made a confused noise, but since it was Sting making noises, they ignored him until he actually spoke coherent words. "What the hell are we preparing for?"

Natsu smiled ear to ear, but it wasn't his insanely excited smile that usually was associated with the threat of a great battle. "Simply put war. The council is gonna be all over us soon." His smile faded into a much more serious face, and everyone crowded around Natsu who was now standing with his arms crossed; they were just as serious as he was.

"I say we've got maybe two months at most, a week or two at the least, before the council hits us with everything they possibly can." He enhanced his point by punching his open palm.

"It's do or die. This is where we'll know if we can defeat the Balam Alliance and subjugate them, or if we get wiped out by everything the light side of the guilds can throw at us. So to prepare, I'm going off to do my own thing, and I'm sending you guys do the same thing."

He separated his hands and pointed two fingers and Sting and Rogue. "You two work best as a team, so I'm sending you two on a couple of bounty hunting missions." Natsu began, pulling out a couple of wanted posters from the inside of his coat before handing them to the both of them. The two began examining who it was they were going after.

"Those guys are no pushovers, be careful and yes, Sting, this is because you didn't bring back any money yesterday. Mister 'I got really interested in a Fairy Tail chick'. Yes, I did hear about it before you ask." Natsu began snickering at Sting's embarrassed look. His snickering was soon picked up by everyone else. But quickly the serious tone was back in the conversation.

"You got it Natsu. We'll show these guys what's up. And also get the money I forgot…" Sting mumbled the last part, but was still just as serious as before.

Natsu nodded before pointing to Gajeel and Wendy. "You two are going to Galuna Island. I heard Grimoire Heart is doing something demonic there, and if they are…" Natsu smiled widely in anticipation.

"Give them hell."

Wendy and Gajeel nodded their heads. And after confirming their instructions the four of them turned to leave. But Rogue stopped the group and turned to Natsu.

"But Natsu, where are you going? What'll you be doing?" Rogue was still worried about Natsu's mood, but was willing to ignore it for now.

Natsu smiled in appreciation. "I'm going to be recovering here for a bit, and then I'm going to go find out what the hell is wrong with me. I'm way too happy for some reason."

They group all turned to leave, but Sting accidentally tripped Wendy. Natsu nearly laughed. Sting did laugh while trying to apologize. Wendy kicked him in the balls. Everyone then laughed at Sting.

Now the only people left in the guild were Natsu and Lisanna. Surprisingly, Natsu turned to Lisanna to speak to her. This surprised her because of how often she wasn't actually thought of during these mission briefings.

"Lisanna, I want to make this simple. Whether or not we actually survive the council attack, I want you to make your way to Fairy Tail. No one knows about you, just like I wanted, but I think you'll be better off there; rather than here." Natsu said with a small apologetic smile.

Lisanna was taken aback. "Why? Are you saying even if you guys win, which you will, then I'm leaving? But I don't know anything about the outside world!"

Natsu continued to smile and scratched his head embarrassed. "Even if we win, I'm going to have to make you go Lisanna. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You ain't gonna find any family hanging with us. Do I make myself clear?"

Lisanna slammed the counter with her hands. "But you guys _are_ my family! What am I going to do without you guys?"

Natsu's face became serious and he dropped any pretenses of poking fun at the topic. "What about you're real family Lisanna? What about them? All we're doing is locking you away from the world. Sting does his best, we all do, but we can't find your family for you! That's something we just can't do. Being locked away in a dark guild isn't going to do you any favors. A light guild, especially one as popular as Fairy Tail, will be able to do much better than we can."

Lisanna was silenced at his words, they were harsh, but as were all of Natsu's words, they were in her best interest. "All right Natsu, I'll go."

He nodded his head before heading back to his office. He came out with a black over coat with vibrant flames coming up from the bottom and from the ends of the sleeves, it also had the emblem for their guild on the back, a dragon coiling around a mountaintop. Lisanna noticed his official get up and became confused.

"I thought you were going to recover for a while here?" She asked.

Natsu smirked back at her. "I meant on the road, I just didn't want them all to keep worrying about me so much. As for where I'm going, well…"

He went to the door that had been crappily repaired before looking over his shoulder to give her one last smile. "Lots of people think we're weak because I got captured, so I'm going to remind the Balam Alliance why they should _always_ overestimate us."

He left Dragon's Keep with a smile on his face and a new sense of freedom he hadn't felt in almost a decade. Now he just had to figure out why it is he had this new sense of freedom and he'd be golden.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Gray was actually considering ditching the mission and finding another S-Class mission to steal. The villager's stubbornness and the annoyingly hot island sun was extremely annoying in combination with each other. _'These goddamn villagers are pissing me off!'_

"Just let me in! I'm here to help you guys! I'm a wizard!"He had been yelling something similar for quite some time and they kept telling him to buzz off.

"We don't believe you!" The guard on the top of the village's, rather large, wall said back at him.

Gray felt his eye twitch in anger. If this is what made S-Class missions so difficult then he kind of didn't want to do them after all. "What the hell do I have to do before you guys believe me?"

The two guards at the top of the wall scooted closer and whispered back and forth to one another. Or at least that's what he thought they were doing. They could have been thumb wrestling for all he knew.

"Show us your guild mark!"

He stared at the ground and slapped himself in the face, repeatedly. _'Oh my god I'm stupid.'_

Gray showed the guards his guild mark, which he did by exposing his entire body by removing his shirt, rather than just pulling the collar down like a normal person. But hey, no one of Fairy Tail was very 'normal' so it fit.

Gray was let into the village and was immediately met with several villagers. Several, human villagers. Several human villagers with demonic appendages, from ears, to arms, to legs, to throats. The varying degree of demonic appendages was as varied as the people there.

The smallest and oldest looking of the villagers came up to him and looked him up and down he had a demonic arm all the way up to his elbow. "Are you all that was sent? How pitiful."

Gray swallowed his pride and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm all that came, everyone at the guild is on their own missions."

The short old man glared harshly at him. "Well if you are going to do anything then listen. We became these monstrosities when the moon turned purple."

 _'The moon turned purple? What the hell kind of drugs are these guys on? And where can I get some?'_

"We are actually able to be mostly human like this during the day. But at night, we fully turn into demons. Sometimes one of us loses complete control." The village elder continued on, not waiting for Gray to ask any questions.

"We know that this didn't happen until the moon turned purple. So we know that it's the moon's fault. So we ask of you, to destroy the moon." The village elder asked him with the calmness of asking someone to go buy groceries.

Gray's mind and body worked as one to spit all of his confusion out in one simple sentence. "What?"

"Destroy the moon sonny." The elder explained again.

Gray blinked in surprise, he also stared unblinking at the same time. "So, you want me, to destroy the moon."

"Yep." The elder said happily. Finally someone was going to solve their problem with the moon.

Gray continued to stare. "So you want me to destroy the moon?"

"Yes." The village elder was looking at Gray as if _he_ was the crazy one.

Gray just made a series of noises that attempted to push the rest of his confusion out of his body before he sighed and groaned heavily at the same time. Wiping his hand down his face in annoyance.

"Okay. Okay. I'll destroy the moon." Gray agreed, closing his eyes and pinching his nose in frustration. How _in the fuck_ was he supposed to destroy the moon?

"Good, now go get started." The village elder said, making shooing motions with his hand as he began pushing a stone face Gray out of the village.

"It's day old man." Gray responded once he was outside the village walls. "How about this? While I wait for it to be night, instead of crying underneath a tree for a couple of hours, you tell me anything that you think could be causing the moon to turn purple. That sound good?"

The village elder rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. "Well, the old temple does shoot a giant beam into the sky pretty much each night. But I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the moon."

Gray felt an overwhelming urge to punch himself in the face as hard as was physically possible. "I'm going to go check that out while I wait for it to be nighttime."

The village elder seemed annoyed with him, but shrugged his shoulders anyway. "When you give up and are ready to destroy the moon come back. Until then go nuts. Obviously you already have…"

Gray suddenly felt a new urge to strangle the village elder but contented himself with using his **Ice Make** magic to grow blades at the end of his elbows and slicing a tree in half. He giggled to himself at the act and began his trek towards the temple on the other side of the island.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Gajeel, what did Natsu say happened to him?" Wendy asked during the long period of silence since they'd gotten off the boat; it wasn't an uncomfortable silence just something she didn't want. They'd arrived on the island a couple of hours ago when it was still sunny outside and now it had turned night. The moon had turned purple and a bright beam was shooting up into the sky.

Gajeel sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "He said he didn't really remember the details very clearly. Everything was really muddy, but he did remember that he lost his ring."

Wendy gasped openly at that. Natsu loved that ring more than anything and the fact he'd lost it must have devastated him and obviously it had. "How did he lose it? He's always said he'd die before he let somebody have it!"

Gajeel shrugged; he knew it was an important matter, but it didn't matter anymore because it was in the past and couldn't be changed. "He thinks that a member of Fairy Tail stole it off him while he was unconscious. Some red haired chick he forgot her name, Tittyania is what he called her."

Wendy blushed a little bit at the colorful name Natsu gave, but she was actually familiar with some of the more well known mages of the world and the description Gajeel gave was close to someone she knew. "If she had red hair and was from Fairy Tail, while her name isn't Tittyania, it was probably Erza Scarlet. Titania is her nickname from what I remember."

Gajeel looked at her for a moment before nodding his head in agreement. "Yeah, that was probably it. Titania brings something to my mind too. Can't remember what though." The first time Gajeel had heard the name Titania he'd wondered about something. What the hell was it? Now it was going to bother him until he remembered.

Wendy suddenly was filled with a great and righteous anger. "If that Erza bitch stole Natsu's ring, no wonder he was so damn angry. She didn't even defeat him to steal it off of him first, she nabbed it off of him while he was unconscious like a common damn thief!"

Wendy turned to the nearest tree and wrapped her arms around it in a bear hug before yanking on the tree with her entire body. The veins in her forehead and arms swelled to be visible on her small body as she tore the full size tree out of the ground; roots and all. She then threw the tree as far as she could in front of her, destroying a good row of the trees friends and family before it came to rest on the corpses of its friends and family. So metal.

Wendy was trembling with anger and panting heavily at her failed attempt to calm her anger. But suddenly she snapped out of her anger and turned to Gajeel and profusely began apologizing for snapping. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to get mad! Please don't get upset with me!" She was bowing and wasn't able to see the suddenly blue in the face and shaking Gajeel.

"Y-You're fine. It's okay." Everyone always forgot what happened if Wendy got genuinely angry at something. Natsu had done a good job to tame it, until Sting called her short and she just fucking destroyed him. Everyone would of laughed at him if Natsu wasn't shaking in his boots while she did it. Just the fact that _Natsu_ was scared of her rampages made everybody else burn it into their memories to never make Wendy furious.

"I'm sorry!" Wendy had made it a huge habit to keep apologizing after her snapping since the time she'd snapped at Natsu when she first met him.

 _"Hey mister! Would you like one of these handmade bracelets I made?"_

 _"Sure. How much are they?"_

 _"Ten jewels!"_

 _"There you go shorty. Have a good-"_

He didn't even get to finish his sentence before Wendy started beating him senseless. After she got done and began apologizing, Natsu had laughed for a long while, afterwards he invited her to tag along on his journeys and she accepted after he fed her and promised to give her a home. He'd said he liked her spirit, and she made him and others around her smile easily.

So, in actuality, Natsu wasn't scared of the damage Wendy could cause with her rampages. No, far from it, he was actually suffering from acute PTSD. Much worse than any of her beatings.

"L-Lets just head to that glowing temple Wendy. Sound like a good idea?" Gajeel did his best to get Wendy's mind off what made her mad.

Wendy perked up immediately and got a determined expression on her face, bringing up her clenched fists near her head making her look like her excitement was going to make her physically explode. "You bet! Let's go!"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"What the fuck was that?" Gray demanded of the empty air around him. It took him all day of looking for the temple and he wasn't anywhere near it when its giant laser beam shot into the sky. And of course, as was his luck with this island like dumb villagers and giant rats that smelled putrid, as soon as he stepped foot into the temple the floor gave out underneath him and he plummeted into the black void that the hole was.

He'd used his magic to make a slide for him to fall down until it hit the bottom. So he didn't get hurt, the only thing that did get hurt was his pride when he tripped immediately after getting off his impromptu ice slide. He grumbled to himself and wiped the dirt off his clothes for a moment before he took in the actual size of the cavern. It was far larger than he was and there were several very tall passageways that led in several seemingly different directions.

"Well here goes nothing. One, two, three, you." Gray said, pointing to every passageway before going down one of them at complete random.

Out of complete and utter boredom, Gray took in the state of each of the passage way he was taking. He could see vaguely human shaped prints on the floors, as if someone had just recently walked out of a puddle and in the opposite directions he was walking. He stopped for a moment to kneel down and examine the prints in greater detail. Of course there wasn't anything significant about them once he got closer.

 _'Yep. Those are human footprints all right. Is there a way out of here? Hey, did I hear something or was that just my imagination?'_

It was not part of his imagination, he could very clearly hear a duet of voices bouncing off the cave walls. He glared and slowly made his way towards the two voices as quietly as he could.

He continued to follow the voices into a large cavern, and while there was no people to meet him there, there _was_ something that made his heart stop beating and his breath to catch in his throat.

 _'No. That can't be possible can it? This can't be for real. What the hell is Deliora doing here?'_

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Look at the expression on that guy's face. Looks like he's seen a ghost." Wendy commented from behind the rock her and Gajeel were hiding behind.

Gajeel observed the guy who had wandered in with a little confusion. "He seems to know what this thing is. Which is kind of surprising, I didn't know anybody survived Deliora's attacks."

Wendy looked back to Gajeel once the man began pacing back and forth and swearing to himself, somewhat loudly. "What's so special about that demon Gajeel? Think that's what Grimoire Heart is playing around with?"

Gajeel shrugged his shoulders. "Probably, but I heard Deliora was killed by some ice wizard named Uh or something like it."

Wendy stared hard at Gajeel until he finally looked at her with an offended look. "What?"

Wendy sighed and continued observing the person who'd wandered in. "You are just about the worst best informed wizard I've ever met. Why don't we ask that guy what he knows about this demon?"

"Wouldn't be too smart. We don't know who that guy is or what he's capable of." Gajeel turned his head to look at Wendy after taking one last look at the demon to find that Wendy was long gone.

"Mister, uh, are you okay?"

 _'Fucking Dammit Wendy.'_

Wendy's sudden appearance surprised the hell out Gray, who hadn't been paying even the slightest attention to anything that wasn't Deliora. "Who are you?" He asked immediately, if this person was involved with Deliora in any way they'd have hell to pay.

Wendy beamed a cheerful and disarming smile; a smile that completely hid the frightening fangs she possessed. "My name's Wendy. And he's-OW!"

Wendy suddenly began cradling a large bump on her head, due to Gajeel chopping her on the dome with a very annoyed look on his face. "I told you not to do that! We may not have orders to be stealthy but you don't go and reveal your presence to a potential enemy!"

Wendy got up with tears pooling at the edge of her eyes. "Gajeel you jerk!" Before she swiftly and powerfully kicked Gajeel square in his iron dragon slayers.

The only noise that came out of Gajeel's mouth was a high pitched squeak as he cradled his destroyed testes and collapsed to the floor.

Gray temporarily forgot that the object of his childhood trauma was in the room. Why was this island a magnet for stupidity? "Uh, again, who are you two?"

Wendy glared one last time at Gajeel and brought her leg back for another kick. But Gajeel coiled further into a ball and Wendy left him alone. She turned to give Gray her full attention. "Like I said my name's Wendy and this jerk here is Gajeel. But why are you here?"

Gray was unhappily brought back to the reality that the creature responsible for his ruined life was in the room and his hands clenched in anger. These people didn't really need to know why he was here, because technically it was illegal, so he'd just mention Deliora.

"I'm here for personal reasons. As well as official ones. My name's Gray by the way." Gray said defensively.

Gajeel had recovered from the death blow Wendy had delivered and shakily rose to his feet. "I hate to interrupt the conversation, but is that thing melting?"

Gray scoffed. "Absolutely not, that thing was sealed through **Iced Shell**. Nothing on the planet could melt that ice." He turned to the sealed demon to prove his point, but to his absolute horror a small water droplet made its way down the side of the shell containing the massive demon. And his face became one of absolute fear and unbridled fury.

Wendy turned to Gray with an accusatory look on her face. "How do you know so much about this demon Gray?"

Gray's hands clenched painfully tight at the sight of Deliora being slowly melted. "My master was the one who sealed it. I won't watch this anymore!"

Gray suddenly turned and bolted out of the cave the way he came. Wendy and Gajeel looked towards one another in confusion. But Gajeel eventually sighed and took off after him, Wendy following right behind him. Gray was probably their best bet to actually finding out what was going one so they decided to stick with him. Though, Gajeel was a little bit slower in his run with a slight limp.

Gray's mind was running a thousand miles per hour. He didn't care about the two mages who decided to follow him, he only cared about stopping whatever was melting the ice surrounding Deliora. He didn't know of any way to reseal or defeat Deliora without following his master's footsteps. Being killing himself.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Damn, we lost him. How the hell did we lose him?" Wendy said in frustration, they were dragon slayers and they'd both managed to lose someone. Tracking people was basically their specialty. Besides being really good at beating people up. Well, killing dragons was technically also their specialty, but they couldn't really find any around so people were the next best thing.

"Dude smells like ice. That whole cavern smelled just like him, I'm not surprised we lost him. We'll just have to follow people's voices. And there sure sounds like a lot up top." Gajeel reasoned, the two of them had found their way out of the cavern, and presumably Gray had done so as well. Now the two of them were going to investigate what was at the top of the ruins, since a giant beam shooting into the sky was generally something people wanted to investigate.

Wendy scratched her head. "You think we need to? It doesn't really feel like Grimoire Heart is doing anything if even that dude hasn't found anything yet."

Gajeel thought about it for a moment. "They could be up there, but seriously don't reveal our presence to people until I say so, please Wendy?"

Wendy kicked the nearby dirt a little but grumbled out a begrudged agreement.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

He would not stand for this. Absolutely he would not stand for this. But even though he wouldn't stand for it, he would sit behind a wall for it. Gray had made it to the top of the temple and saw dozens of cloaked people chanting in some unfamiliar tongue and bowing repeatedly, as if they were praising the beam that was actually flowing into the temple. Not the other way around like he'd thought.

But the whole operation seemed to be oversaw by just two people . One of them was some kind of short man in an old idol like mask. The other one looked much more like he was in charge of the operation, wearing an open white coat with a fancy looking knight helmet with a purple helmet plume and considering the short stocky one was addressing him as 'Reitei-Sama'.

"Do you think Deliora will be unfrozen by tonight Reitei-Sama?" The short one asked of Reitei.

"Maybe Zalty, tonight or tomorrow. It could be either. Finally, after three years of waiting I will thaw Deliora with **Moon Drip** and kill him." Reitei said while staring at his fist, shaking in anticipation of the event.

Gray was seeing red, and just as he was about to crash their party, he could hear the other two mages he met at Deliora's chamber show up behind him. Though they didn't try and be subtle about showing up, considering a couple bodies that matched the cloaked ones doing the ritual flew past him and crashed into the circle of cultists. They fled as soon as they saw the body of their comrades, dragging them with them in their escape.

"Gajeel, do you know what's going on here?" Wendy asked casually, dropping any attempts of subtlety in an effort to just get done with the mission.

"Not really, probably the **M** **oon** Drip those guys were talking about. Doesn't matter now because we found who we were looking for." Gajeel said with a serious look. He suddenly stared hard at the short man next to Reitei and smelled the air around him quite obviously.

"We might have a problem." Zalty said with a forced smile. This was the last thing they needed right now.

"Really now?" Reitei said bored, he sized up the three mages in front of him and only really stopped at Gray, whom was staring at him angrily and confused.

"We found who we're looking for Wendy." Gajeel looked back to his friend with a smile, he remembered that woman and she sure as hell remembered him. But he was going to toy with her first. He and Natsu had left quite the impression on her the last time they'd met, namely the fist mark they'd burnt into her stomach during the fight; courtesy of Natsu.

"What's wrong short stuff? Don't recognize me? I feel insulted." Gajeel taunted the short man, whom was using some sort of magic to hide the fact that he was actually a woman. "Allow me to refresh your memory, it's me Grey Dragon with my friend Blue Dragon, or Gajeel and Wendy if you prefer."

Gray stopped thinking as he took that information in, he'd been in the presence of two of the five dragons and he didn't even know it? Of course they were the two he hadn't memorized, without thinking Gray's magic had begun to boil inside of him, he hadn't ever felt his magic be this potent before and he was going to use every bit of it to crush the two dragons. But he acted too slow to do anything about it.

"Zalty, deal with those two. I'll deal with the other one." Reitei ordered the man. Said man debated just ditching the mission but sighed in defeat, Deliora would be so useful for Grimoire Heart. So with no more hesitance, he made the floor underneath the two turn into dust and watched as they tumbled off of the mountain. He took off after the two immediately after.

"Get back here! Those two are mine!" Gray shouted as he ran over to the edge, only stopping when a wall of razor sharp ice spikes made him stop.

"I think you really should leave this island Gray." Reitei ordered of him, coating his hand in his magic, ready to use it at a moment's notice.

Gray's rage may have subsided a little, but the powerful magic had not. "Like hell I am. I'm gonna make you regret ever trying to thaw Deliora."

Reitei didn't say anything else, rather he just tossed off his cloak and pointed his hand at Gray. " **Ice Make: Eagle!"**

A familiar magic circle floated in front of Reitei's hand and several speedy eagles shot out of the circle, heading right at Gray. Gray was angered at being delayed from destroying the two dragon members and was not happy about that. He turned to face Reitei and cast his own spell.

" **Ice Make: Ice Geyser!"** He placed his closed fist on top of his open palm and slammed his hands on the ground. As soon as he did, a large row of spikes, bigger than he normally made them, shot up out of the ground, destroying the flying birds and rushing Reitei.

Reitei brought his hand up and an intricate shield made of ice appeared before him, stopping the ice spikes, but just barely. His shield took a hell of a beating from the attack and shattered soon after it made contact, just giving him enough time jump out of the way.

Gray smirked when Reitei was driven back from his assault. "I've seen someone do that kind of make magic before. Using one hand really does weaken how strong your stuff is buddy. I used to have a friend that did that too and he also…had dynamic **Ice Make** magic."

Gray narrowed his eyes in suspicion; the magic used fit and so did the voice. It couldn't be him could it? "That can't be you is it Lyon? Don't you dare tell me it is."

Reitei took off his mask unceremoniously and tossed it over his shoulder. "So what if you figured out it was me. It doesn't change anything."

Gray was suddenly overwhelmed with rage. "It sure as hell does! Why the hell are you trying to thaw Deliora? Are you insane? That ice is Ur you crazy fool!"

Lyon frowned and prepared another spell. "I couldn't care less, I only have one way to surpass Ur now, and it's killing the one thing she couldn't. And to do that I need to thaw Deliora. **Ice Make: Snow Tiger!** "

A fluid moving tiger formed beside Lyon and charged at the furious Gray, he threw up his shield and the ice tiger bounced off of it harmlessly. Though it knocked him back, it gave time for Gray to respond and destroy it. " **Ice Make: Hammer!** "

A large hammer made of ice appeared over the both of Lyon and his ice tiger. It came down with an immense force, Lyon did throw up a shield made of ice and it seemed to stop it, but Lyon struggled greatly under the weight of the hammer. Even his shield was cracking under the force.

"I ain't done! **Ice Make: Freeze Lancer!** " Gray shouted his spell and behind him dozens of lances made of ice, still just as deadly as the real thing, hurled themselves at the still struggling Lyon.

Lyon was forced to abandon his tiger and roll just out of the range of the hammer. But he was still to slow to avoid the ice lances. He just barely managed to throw eagles out to destroy them, but some of the lances got through and sliced him repeatedly.

"How could you go and kill Ur Lyon? How could you do that?" Gray asked, panting heavily to keep his emotions under control. If he could stop Lyon then he could stop Deliora from being revived and that ranked higher than fighting the two dragons.

Lyon shook his head and climbed to his feet angrily, staring, with no small amount of disgust, at Gray. "What do you mean kill her? You already killed her years ago! When she sacrificed herself to save your stupid ass!"

Gray recoiled from the accusation. "That's not true…"

Lyon angrily rolled his eyes. "Don't even bother trying to deny the truth you fool. Ur is already dead and it's your fault!"

Gray felt his memories of the event forcing themselves to the front of his mind. "Don't…don't…" Gray continued shaking his head as the events of the day played out in his mind. He dropped to his knees as the guilt he'd felt since that day began eating at him all over again.

Lyon snarled in disgust. "Get out of my sight. **Ice Make: Snow Dragon!** " A large dragon made of ice made its way to float high above Lyon, with its tail coiling around the man as if to protect him. It roared and crashed into Gray's midsection with an incredible force. All of the air in Gray's lungs was knocked out of him and he was barely able to stand on his own legs.

Lyon glared angrily at Gray, offended that he still had the gall to stand. "Just fall. **Ice Make: Ice Geyser!** " Lyon raised his hand into the sky and the floor all around Gray turned into a forest of spikes that sent him flying like a ragdoll into the air, but not before one of the spikes had went clean through his left abdomen. He hit the ground motionless afterwards only managing to cough up a bit of blood.

Lyon exhaled heavily, not expecting Gray's primitive teachings were going to be as powerful as his mastery of one handed make magic. But just as he turned to leave, his foot was suddenly frozen to the floor. Looking back, he saw that Gray was staring at him from the ground with a mixture of regret and anger in his eyes; his hand freezing a narrow path to Lyon's foot.

"I'm sorry Lyon…but I can't let you beat me here!" Gray said with a surprising fire in his eyes. Lyon had been sure that he'd be crushed with grief like he just was. But Gray crawled to his feet with a determined expression on his face.

"It may have been my fault Ur died. But I won't let you undo her last dying act!" Gray then used his magic to cover up his serious wound in his side. A very basic patch up but it would do the job.

"Gray!" Lyon growled out in anger, pointing his hand towards him in a rage. " **Ice Make: Snow Tiger!** "

Lyon created another ice tiger and it charged, but before it got very far, Gray jumped above it. " **Ice Make: Prison!** " Suddenly, Lyon's tiger was completely trapped in a giant ice cage Gray had made. He tried desperately make the tiger break out, but the bars on the cage refused to break.

"One handed make magic is unstable Lyon!" Gray said from in front of his cage, his eyes shut tightly trying to will himself up. "It's too weak compared to two handed!" Gray resolved himself and charged him and punched Lyon powerfully in the jaw, stunning the man and leaving him open for a powerful follow up punch to the stomach that actually picked him up off the ground and launched him into one of the destroyed pillars around the battlefield.

Lyon shook himself from his daze and immediately charged Gray in a battle of fisticuffs, he opened with a simple straight right hook which Gray dodged and returned the punch with gusto. But Lyon wasn't stunned this time and managed to grab Gray's wrist and pulled him into a dangerous uppercut that not only rattled Gray's brain but actually knocked him back into his own ice cage.

Their brawl continued like this, trading powerful punches and kicks and beating each other senseless. But eventually Gray got the upper hand and kicked Lyon in the stomach hard enough for him to spit out a bit of blood. He jumped back and targeted one last spell at his old friend.

" **Ice Make: Ice Cannon!** " Gray suddenly materialized a sizable shoulder mounted ice cannon and fired a projectile from it with enough force to knock Gray off of his feet. The ball of ice plowed right through Lyon's shield like it was butter and blasted into his stomach, picking him up and smashing him into the wall back into the temple with a powerful explosion of magic, leaving him collapsed and barely conscious.

Gray leaned back against a destroyed pillar for a moment to collect his bearings. He also picked up the distant sound of the two dragons battling Zalty and he swore to himself. He had to get to those two dragons and defeat them before they got away. Gray hoisted himself onto his feet with a bit of effort, going to stand over the defeated Lyon.

"I'm sorry it came to this. I know you're dream was to surpass Ur. But living your life to surpass someone who's dead Lyon, just isn't a way to live." Gray continued to listen to the distant battle and grimaced, he'd be hard pressed to defeat those dragons, but he would do it. He would get revenge for Erza.

Lyon just continued to stare listlessly at the sky before turning his head to avoid looking at Gray. "I don't care."

Gray clenched his fist painfully, he didn't have any more time to try and get through to Lyon, he had a guild member to avenge. He turned to run but collapsed because of his stomach injury. He breathed heavily while he pushed the pain from the stab wound to the back of his head and keep walking. There wouldn't be any running for him.

He took his time, and by the time he finally got to the bottom of the temple, he had plain run out of steam and wasn't able to keep himself up anymore. But just as he was about to fall unconscious, someone came and smacked him right out of it.

"Gray Fullbuster you fucking moron!" Mirajane shrieked at him. Slapping him hard enough to knock him onto the floor.

Gray coiled up into a ball to further receive his beating, but was surprised when Mirajane grabbed him by the arm and threw it around her head, carrying him to who knows where. "You aren't in any shape to get a beating right now. Let's head to the village and maybe you could explain something to me."

Gray took a wild guess about what she could mean. "You mean…why all the villagers are humans that take demon shape at night?"

Mirajane looked cock eyed at him. "You must have been in one hell of a fight if you didn't notice it. Just a bit ago, there was a big explosion in the sky and the whole sky cracked and started falling. Hell the moon was purple before that, it looks normal now though."

Gray actually took a minute to process that. "I have absolutely…no clue how that could happen. It probably had something to do with **Moon Drip**."

Mirajane adjusted Gray so she would carry more of his weight and he wouldn't. "What's moon drip?"

Gray suddenly planted his feet and forced Mirajane to stop carrying him. Something which surprised her. "I almost forgot. Mira, there are dragons on the island!"

Mirajane suddenly became deadly serious. "Gray, I know what you want to do."

Gray threw off her arm. "Right now they're fighting some heavy weight guy, we can go in and finish them off after they're done."

Before Mirajane could counter what he said, they were both silenced by a deafeningly loud roar. A roar so loud and powerful that Gray nearly had a heart attack on the spot. His eyes widened and his body began to shake uncontrollably. He turned and began sprinting back into the temple, thankfully he and Mirajane hadn't gotten far away, but that was the last thing on his mind.

Gray jumped down the hole he'd made the first time he got there and Mirajane yelled after him to stop before swearing and following after him.

Mira repeatedly yelled Gray's name until she eventually found him standing and staring, completely unmoving, as a giant demon tore its way out of **Iced Shell**. Gray and Mirajane continued to stare as the giant demon roared another deafening roar and made Gray drop down to his knees.

"It's free…it's free." He mumbled to himself in horror as the memories of the day Deliora destroyed his home played out in his mind.

But before Deliora did anything else, cracks began to form on his body until it stopped moving all together and simply collapsed on itself. Turning into dust.

Gray and Mirajane stared at the destroyed demon, or well, Mirajane stared at the demon because Gray passed out.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Gajeel…I don't think…I can…" Wendy said through her exhausted state on the ground. She had taken one absolute hell of a beating through the floating ball Ultear was throwing around with her stupidly powerful lost magic. She was covered in bruises and cuts all over her body. Gajeel was fine because she took every opportunity to heal him, but it had really taken a toll on her.

But it had given Gajeel several opportunities to really bring the hell down on Ultear himself. The match was really a draw, Ultear was just able to inflict enough damage on them to keep them at bay and keep them out of there most dangerous places to fight a dragon slayer, close quarters.

"It's all right Wendy, I'll handle this." Gajeel himself was in a much better shape than either Wendy or Ultear, but Ultear was much better at fighting someone one on one than two on one.

Ultear grumbled to herself, tired, angry, and sore as hell. She looked around at the damage their battlefield had suffered. Iron poles jutted out of the ground in insane proportion the amount of actual trees. Wendy had absolutely shredded the nearby trees, and her clothes, with her powerful sky dragon slaying magic. And to top it all off, Deliora had managed to free himself a little while ago. She was really done with this now. To hell with Deliora she was done.

"I'm out of here." Ultear said, angry and embarrassed that she had been defeated. She was quickly enveloped by a bright light and when it vanished she was gone.

Gajeel relaxed and sat down next to Wendy. Who promptly fell onto her back in exhaustion breathing heavily and staring at the sky. "Maybe we aren't ready to take on the Balam Alliance just yet. If it took both of us to hold our own against Ultear then what do we do about the rest of the Seven Kin of Purgatory?" Gajeel asked more to himself than Wendy, when he looked over he saw Wendy one hundred and ten percent unconscious. Snoring so hard she could almost be a man.

Gajeel shook his head, they came to do what they were going to do and they did it. So he picked the snoring Wendy up on his back and, with a tiny smile on his face, began walking back to the boat they came in on. Deciding against heading back to the village, just in case they ran into any more unexpected visitors.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Makarov had seen Erza off a few moments ago, and he was finally getting himself psyched up for the mission against Dragon's Keep in a month. But suddenly a messenger came into the empty guild and loudly requested for Makarov because he had a letter for him.

"What's this about?" Makarov said, hopping off the bar stool he was on and addressing the messenger.

"Don't know sir. But it's from the council, so it's most likely a complaint." The messenger said, with a minor salute he left the building to continue on his mail route.

"I wonder what they sent me, I already sent my acceptance in so what more could they want?" Makarov wondered to himself.

He floated onto the bar counter and tore open the official document and began reading. As he read it he grew more and more of a headache. He also grew more and more disgusted until he finally got to the bottom of the letter.

"How the hell is Phantom Lord dropping out of the mission my fault? It's not my fault they dropped out because they refuse to work with everyone else because we're here." Makarov was upset, but it wasn't something he entirely unexpected. Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord had one hell of a feud and it had nearly elevated to a guild war a couple of times.

But needless to say, the council was going to make him try and work out a compromise with Jose and that made him very, very desperate to get alcohol in his system as soon as possible and in as great of a quantity as was also possible.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Erza had asked Makarov for permission to go to Porlyusica's cabin in the woods and he'd agreed, thinking she was going to seek more medical assistance. In reality though, Erza went there for a completely different reason. She knocked on the door repeatedly before a pink haired old woman wearing a cape that had a collar that popped up higher than her head and a green shirt and dark baggy trousers.

"What do you want?" Porlyusica asked, somewhat demanded.

Erza pulled the ring from her blouse pocket and offered it to the woman. "I'd like you to examine this ring for anything suspicious."

Porlyusica snatched the ring form her hand and looked at it incredibly bored. "It's a simple ring made of silver…" She was about to offer it back to Erza, but she felt something off about the ring. On closer examination, she thought she might know exactly what.

"This isn't silver I take that back. It's not faded gold either. Actually, it's not iron, nickel, or even aluminum. It's not even a metal I'm familiar with." Porlyusica declared openly, not really understanding what it was she felt emanating from the ring.

The elderly woman turned to Erza with a raised eyebrow. "Did some wanna be loverboy give this ring to you?"

Erza visibly shuddered at the thought. "Kami I hope not. When will you be done with your examination?"

Porlyusica gave the ring one last look over. "I think maybe a month?" She said with a bit of doubt.

Erza shook her head. "I'll need it in a month to be safe. Can you do it sooner?"

Porlyusica sighed. She looked heavily at the ring again. "Two weeks."

Erza nodded. "That will do."

Porlyusica nodded. "Okay, I'll bring it to the guild as soon as I'm done."

"Don't do that." Erza added immediately as soon as she was done talking. "This must be a secret, if others find out I have this other rumors might pop up."

Porlyusica rolled her eyes. "Fine, come by in about two weeks."

Erza nodded her head and breathed a sigh of relief before she started her long journey home. But Porlyusica had one last thought she wanted to ask.

"Erza, this is important, did the person who did that to you also give you the ring? Is that why it needs to be a secret?" Porlyusica noticed how quickly Erza defended who gave her the ring, maybe there was something she was hiding that no one else could know?

Erza turned and stared at Porlyusica with an inquisitive stare, and she sent one of indifference right back. Eventually Erza sighed and conceited. "I won't say yes or no. Will the answer influence your research?"

"It will influence whether or not I do it." She said without an ounce of care in her voice. She was interested in the ring, yeah, but she could live without doing it.

Erza ground her teeth in frustration. "I'll tell you eventually. But for now I just need you to do this all right?"

"Yes or no?"

Erza growled this time. "Fine, he did! We made an agreement. Are you happy?"

Porlyusica nodded her head. "Thank you Erza, I needed that because I thought something was wrong with that man already. From what Makarov told me of him, it didn't make sense that this is what he turned into."

Erza's eyes widened. "What are you saying?"

Porlyusica stared right in Erza's surprised eyes. "I think this ring is what caused it."

* * *

 **A/N: Oh cliff hanger bitches. I wonder if anybody is going to figure out the huge fucking plot twist coming up in a couple chapters. I'll say if anybody gets it in a private message. And your rewards will be a basket of internet cookies. So useless.**

 **Anyway, it might be obvious I don't like Galuna Island very much. Just not very many interesting things happen during the arc besides the few fights Gray and Natsu have there. Other than that the only thing that's really interesting is Gray's backstory.**

 **Oh well, if you enjoyed please leave a review. It's like a motivation tank, it starts off full, and the more work put in drains more and more of it. And a handful of reviews can fill it back up, depending on how greedy someone is.**

 **Before I forget, I need you all to tell me if you want me to do the Phantom Lord arc or not. I can work with both, and if I don't Rogue and Sting will get their own fancy little arc in the meantime. If not then I'll work them in somehow.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'll be honest, this chapter took a turn I did not expect, but I honestly love what came out of it. I said I might due the Phantom Lord arc, but I went ahead and decided to push off the decision until next chapter. So if you want it or not, go ahead and say so. Please enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

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 _It was dark out and fire, fire was everywhere; even the dark night sky, usually peaceful and calm, was lit red by the intense glows that the fires caused. It was unstoppable. The forest was ablaze and sending thick smoke into the sky. Fields were completely razed, there would be no chance of future crop growth. Houses were lit up brighter than any of the other fires. All of his time to set blazes was concentrated to everything the townsfolk needed to survive. Everything else be damned, forests, animals, innocents it didn't matter. He would burn them all to ashes; but people would burn to ashes first._

 _Except, he hadn't set these fires at all. These fires were a bright and powerful red. They were far more dangerous than any flame he'd created in his short life. He had already tried to calm these fires by eating them, and they'd been the only fire to burn him. He was startled to think what these flames would do to someone who wasn't immune to them. He could certainly hear the pain it caused them from their screams, but he couldn't imagine it._

 _He walked through the town, his white scarf wrapped around his mouth to keep the smoke out of his lungs. He didn't remember how he got here, why he was here, or where he was. He could barely even remember who he even was. All his memories were foggy. His body was incredibly sore, but it lacked any injury and his clothes only showed signs of being burnt and they were torn on only one side of his body. What the hell was he doing just a bit ago? Why couldn't he remember?_

 _He stopped when someone knocked over the door to a nearby burning building, collapsing and rolling on the ground in a desperate attempt to put out the flames. She was screaming for a moment, only until her vocal chords were melted and nothing came out of the burning body. Not even any movement came after a bit, but for some reason the fire went out without any input from him whatsoever, and the burnt and unrecognizable corpse still managed to stare straight at him. Her eyes were completely untouched by the blaze and he was left to see the terrified and confused last moments of this person's life. Which he did absolutely nothing to save._

 _Which was strange, he'd never spared any effort when it came to helping someone before this. In fact, he felt happy that he'd stood there and let that poor woman burn to death. He even found it funny that the fire went out so he could still stare at her face and see the last few thoughts of terror an confusion going through her mind as she died. He found it so funny that he openly laughed. And he laughed loudly._

 _That was when the stink of hundreds, no thousands, of burning and rotting corpses slammed into his nose. His nose was sensitive to begin with due to his magic, and this smell made his nostril hairs burn. His hands came off his face and pulled his scarf down off his laughing mouth, something he wasn't even fully aware had happened. Tears began to form in his eyes because of the stench, but he still didn't stop laughing._

 _No, he laughed harder and louder._

 _For some reason, when he wanted this entire town to hear his laughter, it changed into something much darker; twisted. No longer was it just laughing, but the hauntingly dead and frightful laughter of an utterly insane person. He kept laughing until his throat and lungs burned from the smoke. His hands flew to the side of his face and his nails dug painfully into the side of his head leaving a bloody trail behind his nails as they dug into his skin and tore it open; his blood pooled down his face and dripped onto the ground. He didn't even notice it and fell to his knees, suddenly red hot tears fell down his face at a rapid pace. Why was he crying?_

 _His laughter eventually turned into frightening giggles and self mumbling, completely incoherent because his laughter had robbed him of his ability of speech temporarily he'd laughed so loud and hard. He started walking, painfully slow throughout the burning town; passing one burned and destroyed home after another. The sight kept making him want to burst into laughter again, but something was driving him to hold that back. To keep walking and looking for something. That something he didn't know, but he'd never done it before and desired to do whatever it was. No, he needed to do what his mind was hounding at him to do._

 _But his ears picked up the soft sobbing of someone nearby. His head snapped to the direction where it was coming from and he silently started walking towards it. With a terrifying grin that split his face and showed the dangerously sharp teeth that his mouth hid. He stalked towards the sound like crazed stalker, honing in on the wounded child that had been trapped by a log. Incredibly not ablaze like the two buildings next to it._

 _He stared down at the alley where the sight of a small child crushed underneath the log. His head cocked to the side in confusion, dropping the previous terrifyingly insane grin in exchange for looking all around him for a moment. Was he alone? No one was around? He couldn't hear anybody, he sure as hell wasn't going to be able to smell anyone coming after him right now because of the stench. So he really did seem to be truly the only one capable of helping the child. With that in mind, he began to slowly stalk towards the boy before stopping just at his side._

 _He crouched down next to the sobbing child and stared at him as it desperately pleaded for his help. Crying and screeching his little body in an ancient instinct to survive. But he didn't help the child, no. He ignored the boys pleas and cries and grabbed him forcefully with his hand. Pinching his cheeks and making the screeching child silence himself._

 _But it must have been obvious that the child saw straight through what he was about to do, whether it be from his sudden giggling and wide open eyes and shrunken pupils. The child could tell what was coming for him and began to struggle much harder. More terrified than ever._

 _He stopped laughing and simply stared at the child before he raised his fist, coating it in flames before bringing it down._

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XXXXX

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Natsu's eyes shot open and he saw a normal starry black sky. He sat up and looked around him, he was in the forest and no town was in sight. He rubbed his body down and felt only the residual bandages on his shoulder from a couple days ago that Titania had given him, no agonizing soreness all over his body. He checked his clothes and saw that they were in pristine condition. He sighed heavily before he collapsed back onto the grass he was sleeping on; staring at the back of his hand with a lidded gaze, trying to figure out why he was in a cold sweat.

Natsu ran his hand down his face before staring at his empty palm. "How long ago was that? I can barely remember. I haven't had that dream in years." He let his hand fall back to his side and he continued to look at the peaceful night sky. The contrast from the dream left him feeling quite odd. He wasn't thinking about things that far back, nor was he angry about the past. He'd actually felt happier than he'd felt in a long time.

He adjusted his position and tried to bury himself deeper into grass. He closed his eyes and tried to get back to sleep, the dream memory had rattled his nerves, but he'd slept through worse. It didn't take him long to start feeling drowsy again, but the second he started falling asleep, a dragon apparition made of red flames suddenly rushed at him. His eyes opened swiftly and he jumped from the previous position he was in and landed on his feet, ready to take on whoever had attacked him. But there was nothing there, no red apparition. No mage. No criminal. Nothing.

He sat back down and scratched his head. "What the hell is wrong with me?" While he said this, he stared at the hand that had ended his dream and could almost picture the blood staining his hand in his mind. But what he did see was the tiny hand that coiled around his arm like a snake before bursting into a flashy show of the red flames.

Natsu immediately got up and dunked his head in the stream he had been sleeping nearby. He kept his head under the ice cold water until he couldn't hold his breath anymore. He pulled his head out of the water and greedily sucked in as much oxygen as his lungs could fill before smacking himself repeatedly in the face. It took him a few minutes to calm himself down, he quickly scanned his surroundings for anymore apparitions before smacking himself one last time as hard as he was able.

"Ow. Regret. Regret." He said while rubbing his cheek desperately to alleviate the pain. He'd smacked himself hard enough for the sound to echo in the forest around them and leave a stinging red mark.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down and ran a hair through his wet hair in exasperation. "Why am I hallucinating? I haven't done this…" So many old problems were coming back to his mind, the apparitions, the dreams, the accursed red flames. It had all slammed into him with the subtlety of a brick.

Natsu stared at his hands for a moment. "I'm a wreck. Even my hands are shaking." He covered his face with his shaking hands and breathed deeply then exhaled before breathing again. Then he started laughing bitterly at himself for a moment, almost disgusted with himself that he was being so pathetic right now. When nothing finally happened to him, he sighed heavily before leaning back on his hands. The tips of his fingers were just touching the rushing waters of the stream behind him.

He shakily got to his feet before the sound of twigs snapping made its way to his ears. His problems from just a moment ago were pushed to the back of his head. He was surprised when he heard the twig snap. Usually he could hear someone's heartbeat and breathing this close. But he didn't pay it any mind considering he was kind of on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

"Who's there? I can hear you there's no point trying to sneak up on me." He demanded of the forestry around him, but there was nothing in the form a response. No more twigs breaking, not any leaves rustling, not even the sound of someone's heart beating.

After a few minutes of getting no reply, Natsu was upset. He was already getting screwed with by his own head and he didn't need people to be doing it as well. He got up, angrily stomping over to a nearby tree and looking behind it. "I don't want to play games buddy. I'll burn down the whole damn forest. I am not in the mood right now for this shit."

From behind him, a girlish giggle caught his attention and he whirled around to see who it was. And his breath caught in his throat. The woman before him was of incomparable beauty and nearly his height. She had long flowing pink hair that was soft to the touch. A very prominent bosom with a low cut black top making them all the more prominent. She also wore a red shorts with the pant legs rolled up to make them go up to her thighs, revealing the creamy white legs that led to her sandal wearing feet.

When Natsu finished looking at the woman, he couldn't help but feel sick to his very core at how much this looked like an older version of her. "Oh Natsu, you do remember how much I like forests don't you? It took ever so long for me to make you stop burning them didn't it?"

He said nothing and the woman pouted cutely, crossing her arms and unknowingly accentuating her breasts. "Natsu, stop ignoring me. You know I hate that."

Natsu simply continued to stare right at her, unmoving and unwilling to even acknowledge her presence with his voice. The woman slammed her foot down on the grassy knoll. "Natsu! You're starting to piss me off! Answer me already!"

Finally, Natsu could no longer hold himself back and he growled angrily, his body shaking in suppressed fury. "I don't care who you are. If you're some punk kid using memory magic, a thief, a demon, or someone who is a look alike. I don't care. Get the hell out of my sight."

The women's angry demeanor dropped and she stepped back in shock. Her hand came over her heart and she looked hurt at his words. "How could you say that Natsu? After ten years, I finally find you again and you tell me to get lost?" She seemed genuinely concerned, for she reached out a hand towards him and took a few confident steps forward.

"What you must have endured all this time Natsu, that sadness, the pain, the desire to love again is all something I know that you desire more than anything in the world. Even more than finding your father." Natsu stared at her in astonishment; he stopped growling and his body stopped shaking. The woman smiled happily as she closed the distance between them and her hand caressed his cheek. She sighed in content before bringing him into a comforting hug.

"I've missed you so much Natsu. You don't know." The woman said with a tiny crack in her voice. She placed her head in the crook of his neck and hugged him even tighter. As if she was desperate to keep him as close as possible.

The woman continued to hold Natsu close to her and had no intention of letting go. She started to shake as she suppressed her emotions to try and make the moment as good as possible. She was startled when she felt two hands wrap around her waist and hold her tightly. "That's it Natsu, it's okay. I'm all right."

Natsu gently separated the two of them and grabbed her hand and held it in his own for a moment. Smiling to himself as tears rolled down his cheek. "I'm gonna kill you for this. But it felt nice while it lasted."

The woman got very concerned, taking her hand out of his and grasping his head with both hands to force him to look at her. "Natsu? What's wrong?"

Natsu laughed angrily at himself as tears continued to pour out of his eyes. He grasped her right hand again and brushed his thumb over the back of her fingers. "You're still wearing that fucking ring. Did you think I wouldn't notice something like that?"

The woman seemed confused as she pulled her hand gently out of his grasp. "What are you talking about? I've always worn this ring."

Natsu grasped her hand angrily and held it extremely tightly. "You mean the ring you gave me the last time I saw you alive? The ring you gave me before I held your dead corpse? The ring I was wearing as I buried you! That ring!" He was almost shouting at this point, gripping her hand with enough strength to bring her to her knees.

He kicked her feet out from underneath her and held her up by the hand he was crushing. "That ring, that I have worn every single day of my life; regretting the choice I made all that time ago to let you go on your own path! The ring that I look at every day and regret being the one who survived that day! News flash!" He twisted her wrist until he heard a snapping sound followed by high pitched screams.

"Even if you did get that ring back, this wouldn't have hurt Janice anyway!"He roughly grabbed the side of her head and lit his hand on fire powerfully enough to swallow her entire head. "Janice would be able to kill me if I did this to her."

Rather than yell in pain, the woman screeched and the fire around her head snuffed out. The woman smirked devilishly before she slowly began to change. The skin that was flawless before cracked and chipped off of her, the area under it being black and hollow. She began to laugh in a high pitched banshee cry becoming so guttural and depraved until it wasn't even recognizable as a human laugh anymore. The human form suddenly burst and out of the void came the same red fires as before, given human shape and eclipsing him in size. It grabbed him in its massive fiery hand, burning him in the process but Natsu stayed silent. Staring the beast in front of him in angry defiance.

The beast brought it to its face, the light from its body illuminating him and the surrounding forest. "Did you forget about us for all these years?"

Natsu frowned in confusion, barely able to keep himself from shouting out in pain from the fires melting away his skin. "Who's us you big ugly freak. There's only one of you."

The beast smiled, or at least it looked like it. "You may have pushed us to the back of your mind for so many years, but we are you."

Natsu was confused and could no longer keep the grimace from appearing on his face he began struggling against the beast's powerful grip. The beast watched him in mild amusement before lifting him high above its head and slamming him into the ground. The blow caused an enormous explosion that completely engulfed the forest surrounding them; tearing the trees out of the ground if they weren't completely annihilated. He was buried several feet under the dirt since the beast had driven him straight through rather than let him form a crater. It rattled him but the beast wasn't done with him; ripping him out of the ground and crashing him back into again and again until there was barely any ground left to smash him into. The fires had already glassed the dirt and turned it into razor sharp blades that he smashed into again and again. The beast tore him out of the ground one last time, bringing him up close to his face and examining his completely limp body.

The beast smiled and gently touched the side of Natsu's face with his enormous finger. "You are us, and we are you. You can't escape."

As soon as the beast was done talking the red flames jumped from his finger onto Natsu's face, who was having trouble staying conscious. But the searing pain from the fires burning his face snapped him right out of it and he screamed out in agony; struggling as much as his body was able in its battered condition. The fires steadily swallowed up his entire head, but not stopping his screams and soon completely engulfed him in the red flames.

Natsu didn't know what to do. He was barely able to even know what was going on anymore…what _was_ going on?

 _'Damn…everything is going black…why can't I do anything? Think you fucking idiot! What is this thing?'_ Natsu drew his thoughts into his head and ignored the pain his body was in as best he was able.

What did he know was going on? He had that strange memory dream. Then the red fire started showing up. Then Janice's look alike showed up and tried to do…something. And now, this giant fire demon…thing…was trying to burn him alive with some red fire that could burn him. No matter what he did or thought the demon was still burning him to an absolute crisp.

Natsu laughed a bitter laugh while his mind started becoming unattached to the pain his body was experiencing. _'This must be what…it feels like to burn to death…there was so much I wanted to do with my life…dying wasn't for a little while.'_

Everything he wanted to do with his life flashed before his eyes, but the only thing that was shown were his friends in Dragon Keep, his family, trying desperately to continue on with what they were founded to do. He saw them crying and in misery when they found his burnt corpse. He saw their fury as they completely turned on the magic world, ignoring everything he'd ever taught them about what to kill and what not to kill. Eventually all of them going crazy over his death, wiping out mage after mage in an attempt to accomplish the dream he'd forced on them.

He felt a sense of betrayal. _'Why are you guys so…upset about me? I've used you all to accomplish my own agenda…'_

He continued to watch them as they cried over his death and took that sadness out on the magic world. And then, they started turning on each other. It was a disaster, the four of them all split and formed their own military in four different interpretations of his own dream. Why did they care so much about his greedy agenda? The sight was bringing tears to his eyes, why did they care so much about him?

Then another image floated through his mind, the ones of the past and showed him things that he'd missed. The deplorable conditions of each of his guild members before he met them. Living in the streets, filthy, hated, and alone. But then they all met him and each child grew to him and saw him as the family that had abandoned them.

Natsu felt a moment of realization and felt absolutely disgusted with himself, everything he'd done for them was always for him in the end and they knew it too! He'd always seen them as friends second and something he could use as a tool first and all this time they hadn't cared at all! _'What have I been doing with myself for these past six years? How have I been blind to everything for as long as I have?'_

He felt his body going cold and he accepted it. _'You all deserved something a lot better than me. Please do something…just something better than what I was trying to do for you…'_

Just as his life started slipping away from his body, one last thought came and played through his mind. The image of Jellal still working on his tower, making the slaves work to the bone to build the tower of a madman. But worst of all, the image of Jellal still _alive_.

He shook his head and forced the life back into his body. _'I can't die. Not yet, I have to set them all on the right track first. Then you can kill me, but you ain't gonna kill me yet!'_

The beast stared at the flaming body in its hands, normally something would have burnt up already, but Natsu was special with his incredible resistance to fire. The lack of oxygen would most likely kill him before the fire would. It had been long since the dragon slayer had moved and it had done its job, but just as it was about to let it go he heard the faint sounds of someone _chewing._

The beast looked and saw that the fire he had encased Natsu in was being drawn into his mouth. Soon enough the entire cocoon was gone and Natsu was left staring defiantly at him, bloodied, burnt, broken, but not defeated.

"I'm all fired up!" An excited grin appeared on his face as the beast suddenly became enraged that its fire had been eaten. It drew him behind its head and threw him as hard as it could. He went clear through the forest he was in, leaving a path where he had flown as the shockwave he created blew trees out of the ground. He ended up rolling in the dirt near a cliff edge. He climbed to his feet with a new vigor, ignoring the vast amount of bleeding he was doing and watched as the beast charged at him. It was strange, he could feel the fire he'd absorbed a moment ago and he hadn't absorbed its power. He should avoid eating those flames to be safe.

 **"Fire Dragon's Roar!"** The flames poured out of his mouth and completely obscured his vision of the charging beast. The forest path was completely set ablaze with the stream of fire as it crashed into the beast. The two fires collided and created a massive explosion, sending cinders raining down all over the forest. Setting new fires everywhere they touched.

The beast didn't seem fazed by Natsu's attack and wasn't slowed at all by the explosion. The beast reared back its massive fist and took a powerful leap towards Natsu, blowing out any of the fires nearby from the force of its leap. Natsu yelled and pounded his fists together lighting them with his magic and propelling himself right at the demon with his fire jets.

The two fists collided in midair and the resulting explosions completely dwarfed that of the previous one. It's power blew both of the fighters away, but Natsu's small body was completely blasted into the ground and over the cliff, fire came down on them all like a rainfall. Natsu stared at the sky for a moment, excitement coating his features as energy slowly came to his limbs. He crawled out of the hole in the ground and stood on his shaky legs.

"I remember now." Natsu said to himself as he felt the ground shaking from the demon charging at him. "I remember this technique." His head snapped towards the oncoming fist from the demon and just managed to roll out of the way as his hand carved through the ground like a hot knife through butter; looked like it too.

He used his fire to propel him again and crash into the face of the demon with a powerful punch, it rattled the large demon and he landed behind him. He coated is two hands in fire and smacked them together. **"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"** Out of them came massive ball of fire that carried the demon away before the two fires exploded again.

Natsu used his fire to propel him again and coated his body in flames. He started spinning as fast as he was able and slammed headfirst into the demon's midsection and again was blown away by the immense explosions that followed. He finally stopped after slamming into a sturdy row of rocks and slid down them slowly. He picked his head up and was met with the crushing feet of the demon landing on him.

Before he was even able to cry out the mighty beast brought its foot back and crashed its foot into him, picking up his body and sending him flying again through the forest. He tumbled over himself again and again before stopping against a rock wall. He crawled to his feet before collapsing onto his knees and coughing up blood. He could feel his broken ribs and popped his shoulder back into place with a grimace.

He looked up and saw the demon running at him. It was little ways away, but he didn't have any time to relax. He let loose a torrent of flames from his mouth, but his aim was off and he hit the beasts foot. Causing the resulting explosion to make the demon trip and fall. Natsu smirked through his bloody teeth and ate the fire nearby. He could feel his energy returning just as the demon got to his feet.

He launched at the demon and connected with a shatteringly powerful knee that knocked the beast onto it's back. Natsu had launched into the air and blasted himself straight at the demon's head. His feet were ablaze with his magic when he made contact and the resulting blast threw him back into the air. This time he launched towards the demon and simply punched it again with his fiery fist as powerfully as possible. It blasted him off to the left this time and he eventually stopped tumbling. He rose to his feet and ate the nearby tree on fire and watched as the demon got to its feet, slower this time.

Natsu grinned before he coughed in pain. "Progress is progress." He knew it wasn't good for his system to burn through his magic as fast as he was, but he was having far too good of a fire resistant brawl. Plus, as long as the forest was on fire as much as was possible he'd have plenty of fire to eat and plenty of instant magic restoration.

The demon looked at him with a furious expression, it again charged him but Natsu was at the end of his rope. He couldn't take another beating from the creature before he dropped. He pounded his fists together and fire swarmed around them; eager to cause more destruction that is was used to. He focused all his magic in his fists and stretched his arms out as far as he could. The fire was glowing so brightly that the demon actually stopped charging for a moment before coming back at him full speed.

Natsu smirked to himself, when was the last time he'd used a secret art out of desperation? **"Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!"** He rotated his arms in a circular pattern and his flames shot out in a fiery tornado that picked up and carried the demon off into the sky, striking him dozens of times with the force of his **Brilliant Flame** spell and causing him to get trapped in his own explosions as it was shot back and forth again and again like a pinball machine.

He danced in the sky with his own explosions until it finally stopped and the demon simply dropped out of the sky. It crashed into the ground with a powerful thud and Natsu roared out a victorious scream when the demon didn't rise. When he finally calmed down and let himself relax for a moment, he fell straight onto his back. But, to his horror, he watched the demon rise from the corner of his eye and he felt an immense wave of dread fill his body.

The beast roared a deafening roar and slammed its foot into the ground, apparently not even wounded from one of Natsu's strongest spells. The seismic stomp knocked Natsu into the air just high enough to be right in the pathway of a destructive uppercut that dragged through the ground before plowing into him and sending him off into the air, leaving a blood trail from his mouth following him up.

 _'I can't win. We're both immune to fire but I have a body.'_ Natsu realized while he briefly floated in the air. HE was basically getting hit by a brick wall that could burn things.

The rest played out in slow motion for Natsu as the beast jumped into the air right beside him. It put its hands together and brought them over its head before bringing them down like the hammer of god. Utterly obliterating the last of his ability to fight and creating an immense crater from the strength of his impact. He watched with a fading gaze and blood pooling around him as the demon swelled until it was a giant ball before it let loose an immense amount of red flames that completely drowned him in them. It made him scream out in horrible agony as the fire seared shut all the new wounds he'd gotten.

The demon eventually stopped and landed next to Natsu's body in the crater. It grabbed him again and held him aloft as his completely limp body flopped uselessly without even the energy to hold his head up anymore.

The beast shook him a little bit before grabbing his head and forcing him to look in his eyes. "You are weak."

Natsu hated being called weak, but this thing was bringing back memories and only one person he knew could make fire demons this powerful. "Who…created…you?"

The beast cocked its head. "Why does it matter to a dead man?"

Natsu stared angrily at the beast. "Because the…only person who…can do this…is dead."

The beast shook its head. "You obviously have forgotten the flames redder than blood and hotter than the sun."

Natsu didn't know what to do anymore, he was out of energy, out of magic, and straight up out of options. The beast placed its other hand on his own and squeezed as hard as it could. He could feel his crushed bones being driven into his body, tearing his muscles and ligaments while other bones just simply burst through his skin and he screamed out. He continued to scream and struggle as best he could until his voice grew hoarse and eventually faded away as his lungs ran out of oxygen to scream with; eventually he could just scream no longer and became limp. The beast laughed victoriously and once again surrounded Natsu in the red fire.

This time no sounds of chewing stopped him from burning Natsu to a crisp, instead the fire around Natsu continued to burn and burn and burn in the devilish fire that this demon employed. But something happened, a change in the air around them. Nothing was actually different that could be seen, but there was something that just felt off. The demon dispersed the fire swarming to Natsu to make sure he wasn't doing anything, but it didn't disperse.

Instead it continued to stick to him. So in anger, the demon just swarmed more and more fire to Natsu. The red ball of fire glowed bright enough to seem like a second sun. And then there was a laughter, a soft gentle laughter that gradually turned into a much more insane one. The demon became aware of a pressure on its hand. Until eventually that pressure became completely agonizing and it released Natsu to the ground. When the demon observed its hand, it became obvious that its hand had suffered a _burn._

The fire that was still clinging to Natsu was still surrounding him, but the laughter that permeated the area slowly faded as the fire cloaked Natsu stood up. The fire slowly faded off of him and was slowly seeping into his eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and all of his wounds until Natsu was simply standing there with a dead look in his eyes.

But suddenly his wounds began closing, and the sound of his bones twisting, snapping, and reshaping themselves were heard. In just a moment he was fully healed, but still with a dead gaze. Until he jerked to attention and glared towards the demon with one of his eyes a wide and unbelieving and the other completely blood red. His skin smoked and seemed to glow with energy as the wounds on his body slowly sealed themselves together; but the process was painful and he yelled out. Thrashing and writhing as the foreign red fires went to war with his natural fire and both fires flew out of his body as they fought for supremacy.

It finally stopped for a moment and he stared at his hands as the two flames within finally calmed and one side of his body would coat itself in his dragon flames and the other the blood red flames. The two flames refused to mix and his body was split perfectly. He clenched his fists and stretched his arms. Throwing a few test punches and kicks and grinning ear to ear at the results of the fire he'd eaten.

The beast was completely taken aback, his fires were supposed to have such a quality that even the dragon slayer wasn't supposed to be able to eat them. And he'd gone and done it twice, but not only that, he'd actually managed to _burn_ it. It! A being comprised of the most powerful and dangerous fires ever known and he'd eaten them with less than a shrug. It infuriated the beast and it began to tremble in rage until Natsu began laughing.

"What's so funny human?" The beast said through its fury.

Natsu instead stared at the two conflicting flames on his body and stopped laughing as a sad smile appeared on his face. "I remember flames like these. And the flames I stole from you aren't even as hot."

The beast was infuriated. "Do you mock me?"

Natsu smirked in enjoyment before clenching his fists and putting them to his sides. "You heard me, I've made flames in the past hotter than your little embers. But those flames hurt to just use, and I had to completely destroy my mind to use them. But yours? I just got used to the heat." It had taken a bit of pain, a lot actually, but he had eventually circled his magic as hot as he could just underneath his skin until his body just got used to it. He didn't know how it healed him, but he didn't care.

The beast had enough of his mockery and roared in rage. It's enormous body took a powerful step before launching its fist straight at him with as much force as its massive body could put into it.

Natsu threw up both of his hands and took the punch, the power behind it making him dig into the terrain and create two gashes where his feet stood. But in the end he still stood, his teeth grit and the muscles in his body bulging to the point where the muscles themselves threatened to begin to tear. The beast gawked in surprise that his punch had been stopped.

Natsu took one of his hands off the giant fist and charged it with his new red flames. **"Red Dragon's Blazing Fist!"** The punch connected with the giant fist, and instead of exploding in his face, the punch completely blew away the beast; his arm crumpling like paper under the pressure exerted by the punch. And completely flattening the terrain as its giant body bowled over everything in its path and left a path of burning terrain with it.

He smirked and crouched down to all fours before his two fires burst out and propelled him towards the beast faster than he'd ever flown before. He landed gracefully into the dirt, sliding on the ground and ending up behind the beast as it was crawling to its feet. He grabbed the demon's hand and strained his muscles again, lifting him over his head and throwing him into the cliff face where it created a crater and completely shattered the wall. Cracks raced out from the impact point and the mountain completely crumbled from the blow.

But he wasn't done, as the wall crumbled around it Natsu got down on all fours as the fire around him coiled and spun rapidly. Eventually blurring together into a single magnificent flame that took the shape of a dragon's head. He blasted off towards the beast with a fanged grin and his dragon head flames opened there massive jaws and completely swallowed up the beast. Natsu was flying through the flames and the dragon funneled it straight into his spiraling head butt. The beast cried out in pain as it was burned and the two of them flew through the mountain. It finally crumbled to the ground after the powerful blast.

The fires around him faded away as the two flew in separate directions from a sudden explosion. Natsu coiled around in mid air and managed to land on his feet, digging his hands and feet into the dirt and stopping himself with great effort. The beast instead tumbled and plowed into the ground with a powerful impact that shook the ground from all the way where he'd landed. He growled and used his fires to propel him through the air in search for the demon.

He'd missed the sudden fist that came from the ground. The beast had hidden under the destroyed rubble and sprung from the ground with speed far exceeding what Natsu thought it was capable and the blow skyrocketed him high into the air. The beast crouched down and launched itself into the air with enough energy to uproot the few trees that remained in the ground and was dead even with his height. It reached out and grabbed him before plummeting towards the ground, the beast used his own fiery jets at the bottom of its feet to accelerate their fall.

Natsu yelled out and pumped as much energy as he could into his fiery jets and it did nothing to stop their descent, he simply didn't have enough time to reverse it and the two of them slammed into the ground with the impact of a meteor. Trees, fires, and dirt flew into the sky in an immense impact explosion.

The beast stood and shook off the debris before swelling up and letting loose the torrent of red flames onto where Natsu was buried. The rock burned and melted until it was a giant pit of magma that turned into a massive rock solid piece of stone with Natsu sealed in the center of it. Just as the beast felt relieved the ground beneath him began to shake. The pool of rocks he'd just melted blew apart and it revealed a mostly fine Natsu. He only looked angry and a little bit of blood leaked from his mouth as well with most of his clothes having been burned off at this point. With only one of his pant legs remaining and his coat having been incinerated long ago.

The beast was stunned for just a moment and Natsu used that moment to jump straight into the beast's jaw, landing his fiery red uppercut and watching as cracks formed on the beasts neck and jaw. He yelled and his magic shot out of his body and straight up into the air, he continued to yell as the red flames slowly began to take over his body and the red flames were the only thing he was using; but his other eye was still normal and only one was red. He stopped yelling and swelled his body with the red flames.

 **"Red Dragon's Roar!"** The flame had absolutely none of his dragon slaying magic and it slammed into the beast as it was rising up and created an immensely large explosion that had dwarfed everything that their battle had caused so far. The beast was shot into the air from the explosion and cracks spread across his body from his chest, but they still faded away.

Natsu was furious that he still was too weak. He'd already expunged his dragon slaying magic what more did he need? He refused to go that last step. He roared and shot into the sky and flew past the rising beast until he was much higher in the sky. But he then charged straight where the cracks in the beast's body receded and slammed his fist into the beast's chest. The beast flew into the ground so fast it almost became invisible and Natsu went right down with it to ensure he crushed it and the two were completely buried. Natsu jumped out of the rubble and panted heavily as he watched the beast's body with cracks spreading all over before they still receded.

The beast got up to its feet and shakily stood up before the fires on its body became even more intense than the fires surrounding Natsu. It charged and connected with a powerful kick that sent him flying. The beast took after him and managed to get behind him and bring his two hands down on him with bone shattering force. The beast cried out in fury before repeatedly punching the ground where he'd just buried Natsu. Over and over again.

Suddenly his hands were stopped and he felt a burst of magic completely knock him away with just its pressure alone. The rubble around Natsu had been completely eviscerated when his magic went crazy and his hands flew to the sides of his head as an agonizing pain made itself known in his head. Every second it pulsed and he slowly felt himself losing control of the beast's flames; they were being swallowed up by another even more powerful magic. And he felt his _own_ red flames start demanding that they be released.

The magic he'd stolen from the beast was melting away and something he couldn't control was trying to take their place. It was knocking on his door, it always was. And this battle had pushed him to the limit and weakened the restraint he had on those flames. All this time he'd forgotten about them, their power, their destruction, and what happened when he used them.

 _'Have to end this…now!'_ Natsu was losing control by the second and he didn't have any time left to beat this thing; he had to expunge all these red flames and defeat this demon at the same time. As much as he was terrified of what'd he'd do if this gamble failed, at least this thing was going to die no matter what he did.

He reeled his magic in as best he could and put every bit of the red flames in his hands. His regular dragon slaying magic took over his fiery coat and left him with red dragon like claws for hands instead. He crouched low and blasted towards the demon with every bit of magic power he had left, it wasn't as powerful as earlier, but it was enough for him to land a thunderous uppercut to the demon's jaw. It flew backwards and Natsu gave chase immediately, striking it repeatedly all over their battlefield. He cracked it's jaw, its face, its chest, its stomach, and cracks all over the demon's body spread. But no matter how hard he hit it, it just didn't die.

The beast was still regenerating from the absolute beating it'd just received; but it was absolutely _livid_. "I WILL END YOU!"

He changed his tactics, he couldn't afford to waste any more time, the red flames were seeping into his mind and he was straight out of time. He used all of the dragon slaying magic that he could and spat all of out in a immense tornado that completely swallowed the beast. But the tornado shrunk into a condensed ball that was just bigger than the beast. It shook and almost seemed like it was crying out as the beast slammed into it again and again as explosions rocked it; but Natsu refused to let the beast crack the bubble.

He knew that mixing his dragon slayer fire and the red fire resulted in an immense explosion. So, with a strained grin, he enacted his plan.

He stretched his arms out and extended his red flames until they formed two twin enormous dragons that completely dwarfed the size of the beast. He had fueled these two dragons with a mixture of his dragon slayer magic and the red flames as he planned, they were extremely unstable and just keeping them from destroying themselves was taking everything he had. He didn't think it would be that hard.

But this had more power than any spell he'd ever cast, with the resolve that he absolutely had to win Natsu slammed his hands together and the two dragons roared and flew towards the ball of fire with such speed they were a blur.

 **"Red Fire Dragon's Twin Devastation Wings!"** The dragons crashed into the fire and for just a moment everything was silent, but that moment passed an explosion that completely swallowed up the giant forest the two were in. The fires reached the clouds height and the explosion made him completely deaf from the shockwave. The agonized scream of both Natsu and the beast were unheard of as the explosion blew them both away and presumably burnt them both to cinders. Only the one with higher resistance to fire would have survived.

Everything was quiet after that, the spell had completely destroyed the forest they were fighting in, and all that was left was the glassed dirt and several fires raining down from the sky. There was no sight of the beast at all at the epicenter of the spell's destruction. But there was no sign of Natsu either.

A lone sparkle of light floated down near the center of the massive crater. The figure was hidden by a black full body cloak with two snakes coiling up the cloak in perfect synchronization so that the heads both rested on the figure's shoulder. But what was most shocking was the two horns poking out of the cloaks head and the tiny tail poking out the bottom.

The figure made a dismissive gesture with their hand and the rocks at the center moved hastily out of the way. And under them sat a tiny blue burning flame. Just big enough to light a match. The figure crouched down and picked the flame up with their hand and held it close to their face.

"How surprising, I honestly thought you would defeat little Natsu." The figure said in a high pitched voice before a girlish giggle came out of amusement to the situation.

"I guess he didn't hold back against you at all did he? Oh well." The figure sighed before snapping their fingers and eating the tiny blue flame and licking their lips afterwards.

The figure was surprised by the sound of footsteps behind them. "Who the hell are you?"

The figure turned around just enough to see who was behind them and smiled lightly when Natsu was standing there. Burns all over his body, cauterized cuts and gashes all over, and dried blood and dirt sticking to him. But despite all that, he was still ready to fight. The figure turned back around and stared off in the distance. "Do you care all that much? I mean I did just finish off this spirit for you."

Natsu spat on the ground. "Finished? You mean I did everything. Besides, I want to know why you're even here. You obviously know who I am. So I'll ask again, who are you?"

The figure laughed softly before turning to face him fully, looking down they noticed that his finger was bare of the ring like he'd claimed. "You'll learn in due time Natsu, and where is that ring of yours? You didn't lose it did you?"

Natsu became furious and just barely kept himself from lunging at the person in front of him. "Like I'd tell you! Don't try and fool me! How the hell did you know about Janice?"

The figure's smile dropped and a frown formed on its face. "I've been observing you for a long time Natsu. Isn't that obvious? Then again, you never were very smart."

Natsu's fury washed off his face and in its place was a tamer, but no less rampant, anger. "How do you know her technique? How do you have Janice's technique?" He was breathing heavily to keep himself from lashing out before his questions were answered. But he stopped, a thought popped into his head, a thought that made his head hurt from the amount of anger he was feeling. He felt a cold shiver go down his spine the more he thought about it.

His hands clenched so hard that blood leaked from his palm; his eyes were wide and shaking as pieces began to fit into place. His magic was swelling within him to heights that he'd never felt before from his rage, he could feel himself about to pop. "You had something to do with Janice's death…didn't you." It wasn't a question, it was just a statement of something he knew for an absolute certainty.

The figure tilted their head and put a hand to their chin for a moment before nodding their head. "Yes, I would say I had something to do with that death."

Natsu was frozen in place in horror. Right there in front of him was the person who killed Janice. His hands shook with the emotions playing games with his mind. Tears of righteous anger flowed down from his eyes as he took in sudden shallow breaths. Despite being a fire dragon slayer the air around him felt ice cold. Quickly his breath picked up its pace and he breathed heavier and deeper as rage became the only thing he was capable to feel anymore. Unaware to him, he felt a power surge within him that completely surpassed the red fires he was using. Red scales began to form on his arms and the back of his hands and snaked their way up to edges of his eyes.

Suddenly he roared loud enough to make the smiling figure flinch and the ground around him cracked from the force of the screech. He launched with the power to destroy all of the crater behind him at the figure. His hand was coated in his flames and just as he connected with the smiling face of the figure. It burst into blue flames.

"Our time isn't now Natsu. Give it time." A voice said from right behind him. He skidded to a stop and the figure was completely gone, he took off in a dead sprint and searched all over for something, anything, that would lead to where the person he'd just met would be. He searched until the sun came up on the horizon and he collapsed to his knees, punching the ground in frustration and tears freely fell from his face while he cursed himself for being weak. Not a scent, footprint, or even skin was left behind for him to find. They knew how good of a tracker he was and did this to him on purpose!

It wasn't fair! How many people were involved with Janice's death? How many more people was he going to have to kill? How many more lives was he going to destroy? How many homes was he going to ruin? His hands clawed into the dirt, trying to will something into existence that he could pummel into a pulp and blame for all his problems. This whole thing just brought more questions and he stopped punching the ground for a moment.

Had Jellal actually been the one to kill Janice? Sure, she had been a prisoner of the tower for some time before he got there. But her body was still warm when he'd found her. And Jellal had no memory of anyone named Janice, yet Jellal seemed to remember plenty of the people who Natsu had crushed to get to him. Was Jellal really the guilty one? He shook the thought from his head.

Of course Jellal was at fault. Janice was being held as a prisoner for however long before he'd gotten there. If Jellal wasn't trying to build his idiotic tower then Janice would have never died in the first place. So Natsu felt no wavering on the burning desire within him to kill Jellal. Nothing would stop him and he brought his clenched fist close to his face, soon he would make Jellal pay for his crimes.

But he stopped suddenly and stared at the back of his hands. His scaly dragonic like hands.

 _'What the hell?'_ He stared at his hands and saw that the scales went up his arms and even scaled his face a little bit. He'd wondered why he felt so suddenly full of energy, but had it been whatever this was the entire time? He'd assumed it was just his unfathomable rage that gave him that energy. Maybe his anger did have something to with it? This hadn't happened before, never.

As he calmed down slightly and forced himself to accept that the person that was responsible for Janice's death had gotten away he simply collapsed and stared at the morning sky. He wondered how many people had seen his brawl with the fire demon. Actually, was he even anywhere near a town? He thought about it, he might have been close to one when he went to sleep but he couldn't remember. Speaking of sleep, Natsu saw that the scales on his arms had vanished and he felt exhausted.

"But I do need some new clothes I guess. Sleep comes afterwards." Natsu crawled back up to his feet and sighed heavily before he started walking towards the direction he thought the town was in.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Just as Natsu had thought, he was in fact nearby to a town when he'd gone to sleep the previous night. But it wasn't any ordinary town, this town happened to be Magnolia. The home to the most powerful light guild in all of Fiore: Fairy Tail. The town itself was large and always busy due to the immense popularity of Fairy Tail, so the town was extremely well off. But during the night, the entire town had either been drawn to, or woken up by, the immense fireballs burning the forest.

Of those people, were the members of Fairy Tail. Team Erza was almost completely there, though not quite at full strength since Erza had yet to recover from her fight with Red Dragon and Gray had only just gotten back from Galuna Island an hour ago; Lucy wasn't back yet though. As well as the guild master of Fairy Tail, Makarov Dreyar was present. The rest of the guild was still absent on their missions, but most of them were on their way back.

Gray was the first to comment. "It's over master. What was causing that fight is done now."

Makarov continued to stare at the outskirts of town from the guild hall. Feeling something extremely familiar about the magic that was destroying the forest. It felt so familiar, where had he felt such powerful fire magic before?

Erza remained silent and stared silently with an open mouth at the fire raising into the sky. Mirajane had noticed her silence. "Oi, Erza. What's the matter?"

Erza didn't look at Mirajane, but she swallowed audibly out of fear. "Red Dragon…"

Makarov's eyes widened in surprise. The magic fit Natsu perfectly, but why was he here? Was he attacking them?

Gray and Mirajane looked at each other before looking back to Erza. "You can't be serious can you Erza?" Gray asked out of worry, grabbing his friends shoulder to make her say something.

"No." Makarov began with a note of worry in his voice. "It's him. It's Natsu, I'd recognize that magic anywhere."

Everyone present started panicking. What were they going to do? "Why the hell is he here master?" Mirajane begged her master for an answer. When he gave none she turned to the surprised Erza and forcefully turned her to face her. "You fought him right? Why is he coming here?"

Erza was taken aback at the question and was caught off guard. "I-I don't know!" While she said this, she believed she might know the reason he had came here. He was coming after her, or more accurately, the ring he had given her.

"He's in the city!" Makarov exclaimed in worry, he could sense Natsu's powerful magic crossing through the city entrance. As soon as he noticed that, screams of panic and terror reached all of their ears. Makarov grit his teeth and prepared for battle, they were the only thing between Natsu and a killing spree.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Natsu stared in mild surprise when the crown at the entrance to the city disperse once they saw him. "Ten seconds. That's a new record. Usually I make it to at least thirty or forty." He'd thought about using transformation magic, but he decided to save the little bit of magic he had left in case he ran into someone who could be a challenge. Like a wizard saint or something. Bu if he were honest, a wizard saint would most likely crush him right now.

A few civilians had thrown rocks at him but he just simply got out of the way. "Hey I need some new clothes, someone give me some."

"He's gonna kill us! Everybody run!" Someone in the terrified militia screamed before they all dropped their pitchforks and torches before turning tail and running.

"I ain't gonna kill nobody." Natsu began, his face lit up at the torches on the ground as his eyes passed over them. "How kind of you guys! A snack!" He walked over to the torches and picked them up one by one and ate the fire on them. It did next to nothing to restore his magic, but he felt more energized now. Maybe he could actually make it in and out of a clothes store before he passed out.

But as he reached for the last torch, he could hear the approaching four pairs of footsteps. And he recognized two of the scents rushing towards him. "Really? Makky is here? What the hell is my luck?"

In just a moment, he was surrounded by the three guild members and Makarov blocked his path going forward. "You will step no farther into our city Natsu."

Gray stared at the man who'd nearly killed Erza and he could barely restrain himself, he wanted to charge the weakened mage and beat him unconscious. But Makarov had ordered them to only step in to keep him away from civilians. Otherwise to let him handle him.

Mirajane was much the same way in what Gray was feeling, she may not have like Erza all that much, but they were still guild members and the fact she'd been hurt so badly made her just as furious as any of the members.

Erza gulped audibly, she knew that she stood no chance in her current injured form, sure her hand was much better than before and she could walk unassisted, but Natsu had inflicted most of his injuries on her as an afterthought; mainly so she would leave him alone while he slaughtered the councilman. But maybe they would be able to take him, Natsu did look like he fought with everything in his ability and he seemed dead on his feet.

Natsu glanced over all the mages and could physically _feel_ all the hate rolling off the mages around him. But he stared oddly at Erza and seemingly ignored Makarov's words. "You're a **Requip** mage right?" He said, turning to her and pointing a questioning finger at her.

Erza frowned and ignored the eyes her friends were staring at her with. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Natsu smiled a little. "Does that mean you can pull some clothes out of your, uh, whatever place for me?"

Silence, they all stared at him as if he grew another head.

Natsu sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Is that a no? I mean, that's the only reason I came here so I'm not leaving until I get some clothes because my pants are about to fall off and I'm not confident at all that my underwear survived that fight."

The four Fairy Tail mages could physically feel themselves lose brain cells as they were all forced to recognize the fact that he was almost naked. Erza twitched in irritation, she hated when she was talked down to. "Don't mock me you-"

"Erza!" Makarov shouted out, hearing her usual tone where she was about to fly off the handle. His order seemed to get her to calm down. He sighed in relief before turning his attention back to the bored Natsu. He may have acted like he wasn't ready to fight off an attack, but it was obvious that he was.

Natsu sighed in annoyance. "Seriously, I am in an extraordinary amount of pain right now and technically I just saved your guys' town. You're lucky that damn thing didn't kick me hard enough to make it all the way into the town, then I sure as hell would have lost trying to make sure no one got killed."

Makarov furrowed his brow in suspicion. "What thing was it that did this to you?" He didn't believe that Natsu had saved the town at all, nor did he believe that he would protect any citizens.

Natsu groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It was a giant flame avatar. Those things are strong enough to kick my ass, you guys really owe me a lot. So can I please just have some clothes? I will leave if you do because the next town is like a day's walk and I guarantee I will lose my pants by then."

"Stop talking about getting naked!" Mirajane growled out in frustration. She was tired of being forced to accidentally imagine his junk. Her sentiments were mirrored by Gray's blue face and Erza's identical disgust.

Makarov ignored Mirajane's pleas. "Will you actually leave if you get clothes?" While he didn't believe him, it wouldn't be impossible for that to be the case.

Natsu shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Would I have bothered coming into town if not? Look at me for fuck's sake! I do have shame you know?"

Makarov sighed and thought about it, it would be great if he would simply leave after getting clothes. But, he didn't know if he would simply _let_ Natsu go. "All right fine. Erza, can you **R** **equip** clothes for him?"

Erza gaped at her master. "You can't be serious."

Makarov sighed. "I know, but what's the harm?"

Erza eventually conceded. "I'm **R** **equipping** you a dress."

Natsu stared at her. "I will strip naked right now if you give me a dress."

Erza felt an immense urge to stab him as many times as possible. "Fine. You get normal clothes."

Natsu sighed in contentment. "Make sure they're fireproof. Like super fireproof."

Begrudgingly, Erza requipped him a normal red shirt and loose black trousers. Which he simply put on over his destroyed clothing. "Thank you very much. Now, I think you all have unfinished business with me."

"Precisely." Makarov said, he could easily tell after having Natsu be still for so long that he simply didn't have the energy to fight any of them. And surprisingly, Natsu seemed fully aware of that.

He sighed heavily. "I don't remember much of what happened when I attacked you Erza. But, I have to say I'm sorry for it."

His words took everyone by surprise, but it made them all angrier when they were reminded why Natsu was their enemy. But Erza's anger was replaced with familiarity when she was reminded of the last thing he'd said to her when he gave her the ring. "You all hate my fucking guts, for the same reason. And that makes you all good people."

He opened his arms slightly and gestured to himself. "Come at me. Hit me with whatever you want. Break my arm, crack my skull, tear out my teeth, hell do anything you want. I don't know of another way to settle things between our guilds and ensure that no one gets killed. Besides, I was the one who attacked Erza over there, not my guild. Let me take responsibility as guild master for once and make up for my own mistake." He would have never said this a couple weeks ago, but he felt better with himself that he did say it. The council couldn't hold him no matter what they did, he just let them capture him for giggles that first time.

Makarov felt a weird sense of déjà vu at the words, and for a moment, he saw the little child of Natsu from all the way back then. But why was he saying this? What did he have to gain from doing this?

"That ain't how Fairy Tail works." Gray said suddenly, piping up for the first time since he'd seen the man who assaulted Erza.

Natsu acknowledged his presence for the first time he'd been there with an angry scowl.

"If you were in our shoes, how would you respond to the words you're telling us? Fairy Tail doesn't work like that, when we make an enemy. We crush them, utterly. Like we'll do to you." Gray said with absolute certainty, the coldness and confidence in his eyes made Natsu do a double take on his own words.

"If we hurt one of your comrades, what would you want? Just the master of the guild coming to us and telling us that we are allowed to kick his ass for free to get even? Don't you get how pathetic that is?" Gray angrily accused him. Makarov wanted to say something, but he didn't have anything to say. Gray was saying it all and Natsu was listening intently.

Natsu closed his eyes for a moment before heartily laughing for a moment. "Well said kiddo." Natsu said honestly before sighing heavily and looking determinedly into Makarov's eyes.

He smacked his chest right where his heart was before pointing his fist at the master of Fairy Tail. "We'll settle this the old fashioned way then. With a battle. When the council attack happens, we'll be ready. I honestly couldn't say which guild would come out on top if we clashed on our own. But I'll tell you all this."

Natsu grinned excitedly as a ball of fire formed in his palm. "If you guys rely on your own guild's power to fight us then you might win. But, if you rely on that pathetic alliance they're gonna force on you for victory then…" He then clenched his fist and the fire was snuffed out.

"Then you'll get burnt."

* * *

 **A/N: I think that was a big improvement on the fight scenes so far. Please tell me anything you see wrong wit them because I want to make things as enjoyable as possible.**

 **But ignore that if you want, please leave a review if you enjoyed!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Wow... I haven't been here in five months... I'm sorry. I just kinda lost interest in writing in general until I got to college. I just sat down, joined a creative writing club and got my buzz going again. Now, I could hopefully keep writing as long as everyone is still hopefully interested in it. But, I'm gonna finish it regardless.**

 **Anyway, please forgive me for being so late. This story is not dead, I will finish it.**

* * *

Tensions were rising between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord. That was obvious from the blatant refusal to participate any longer Phantom Lord had sent back to the council. They were all fine and happy to work with the council and Lamia Scale, but as soon as Fairy Tail _'s_ decision to join was heard they were no longer happy about it. They sent no less than twelve letters demeaning every member of the council, Siegrain especially since he was in charge, and that Fairy Tail's assistance on this mission was completely unnecessary and that they were more than enough to squash Dragon's Keep. They were very adamant about all subjects.

The council also had to deal with the fact Natsu had almost completely burnt the forest surrounding Magnolia to the ground. Over ninety percent of the forest was simply up in smoke overnight. Makarov was also quite _pissed_ that Phantom refusing to cooperate was being blamed on him. And because of that, Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord were both threatening to pull support completely. Phantom out of spite to the council and Fairy Tail because they were tired of being blamed for everything. So they also had to deal with that.

On top of that, Siegrain was getting hounded to cancel the mission from the council out of fear there wouldn't be enough manpower to go through with it. The council had only agreed to go through with the mission because two saint wizards would be on it, Siegrain and a wizard from Lamia Scale, along with the two top guilds in Fiore, and the fact that Drago's Keep was only five members. Without the two top guilds along with the saints, the council was just about ready to pull the plug. To them, Dragon's Keep had proved it was _just_ as dangerous as a Balam Alliance guild.

Siegrain was tearing his hair out in frustration in his office. The fact Natsu had completely humiliated him and was going to get away with it was something he utterly refused to accept. While he was stewing in anger, his companion Ultear had an idea. It was simply to invite Jose and Makarov to a hearing to work out their differences so that the mission could continue.

While it had been an utter _bitch_ to get both men to agree to a hearing, the two of them finally relented and were willing to talk out their problems man to man.

"Gentleman." Siegrain began, they were all seated in a small room at a table big enough for the three of them, Siegrain, Makarov, and Phantom Lord's master Jose Porla. The room was nothing special, being only lightly guarded by two council soldiers and having no windows, considering three of the most powerful wizards on the continent were all seated in the room there wasn't much of a need for guards.

But Jose didn't even let him continue his opening speech. "I don't see a room of gentleman, I see one man and an insect."

Makarov raised an eyebrow in amusement, a small cocksure smile gracing his face. "I see nothing like that. Just three men who are very busy; so Siegrain, if you please."

Siegrain was thankful for the moment to speak, but Jose again cut him off. The man glaring darkly underneath his pointed hat and figure hiding cape. "Don't flatter yourself you bug."

Makarov sighed and dropped the smile for a more serious one. "There are things more important at stake than our egos Jose. At least hear this out."

Jose made no verbal agreement, but he did lean back in his chair and cross his arms. He turned his head to the aggravated Siegrain and motioned for him to continue.

Siegrain half growled and half sighed before he pulled out several pieces of paper from a yellow folder he'd brought with him. "On these pieces of paper are every known member of Dragon's Keep. While we are almost certain they are a small guild, like the Balam Alliance member Oración Seis, we do not know for certain if they are limited to just these five members since they kept themselves in the dark for so long."

Jose took this opportunity to pipe up. "If there are simply five members, why have they been such a problem? They can't simply be that powerful."

Siegrain coughed into his hand to clear his throat and picked one of the papers up, handing it to Jose whom read it half interested. "One reason is because they all apparently use lost magics. Anybody that has access to those is already considered dangerous. But the strength of their individual members and the guild master is what makes them so dangerous."

Jose continued reading the paper and put it down when he was finished, his expression not changing from one of annoyance the entire time. "Yes, this Natsu Dragneel is powerful. But he simply can be overwhelmed can he not?"

"We don't know how many bodies that would take." Makarov answered dryly, feeling a pit in his stomach at the memory of Erza being carried in at death's door after her mess with Natsu and his anger.

Jose wanted to scoff, but he was somewhat aware of the council's failed attempts to arrest the dragon members. He especially heard how the entire guild made a mockery of Siegrain and his strength; but he hadn't put much thought into it since he saw Siegrain as beneath him. "That doesn't mean that both of us are required to defeat Dragon's Keep. There is going to be two saint wizards on this mission, you Siegrain, and the one from Lamia Scale. The regular members of Dragon's Keep don't seem to be that powerful. So, both of our guilds influence isn't needed."

"Jose." Makarov began angrily, upset that the man was already making this a power contest between the guilds. "This is to ensure as few casualties as possible. Both of our guilds are powerful, if we work together Dragon's Keep will be knocked off the map and no one will get killed." Even though he shouldn't feel responsible, he couldn't get rid of the guilt that Natsu's guild's actions had caused.

A dark aura filled the room emanating from Jose. "Are you implying that my guild is too weak to handle Dragon's Keep Makarov?"

"Enough. Both of you." Siegrain said calmly but with force from his position between the two men. It was enough to stop the two from devolving into an argument, but not enough to shake Jose's furious mood.

"Let's just focus on destroying Dragon's Keep before they decide to attack us first." Siegrain said this with a tiny bit of desperation in his voice, he really wanted them to just shut up and agree on literally anything.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Sting and rogue were sitting casually in a shady bar that would look the other way for a fee. It had taken them a bit of searching and hunting, but they had mostly taken care of the few mages they were after and gotten a decent haul. Sting currently had the money on its way back to the guild thanks to Gajeel and Wendy whom they'd ran into a while ago, so now they were left with the easy part of their mission and no longer had to carry all the money back themselves. The easy part was simply getting information out of the local scumbags, i.e. relaxing in a shady ass bar until they overheard what they wanted to hear.

Rogue eyeballed the last wanted poster in his hand, the man on it was large and had a bandana on his head. He had a metallic jaw and wore robes. His name was unknown so the only name he was given was Metalface. Courtesy of Sting. He had the largest bounty by far and was easily the most dangerous of the entire bunch. But they didn't have anything to go on and Wendy and Gajeel had absolutely no idea where he was. So, they were stuck. They had a weak informant, but the chances were slim. But the chance was there.

Sting groaned from his seat before finishing the last of his drink. "I don't think this is working. Much longer here and I'm probably going to start getting drunk. This guy isn't going to show up today, plus I'm tired."

Rogue looked up from the wanted poster and grimaced at the amount of alcohol Sting had purchased. A stack that was bigger than him sat on the bar top almost staring him dead in the face, he was lucky that their biology made them so hard to get drunk. "I'm not surprised you're tired. You have more liquor in your system than blood."

Sting shrugged his shoulders and stretched heavily. "Doesn't matter, that's normal for us isn't it?"

Rogue didn't really have a response that would disprove Sting's counter, so he just sighed and ordered a shot of whiskey for himself.

"Cheers." Sting said non-cheerily, clinking their glasses together and drinking the burning liquid down without much of a reaction. There was a small moment of time between their next drink and Sting played with the rim of his glass while he collected his thoughts.

"I know we said we wouldn't talk about it, but it's bugging the hell out of me." Sting began suddenly, surprising his drinking partner whom wore an agitated face at the question.

"Sting." Rogue said as a slight warning.

"No I'm not gonna make assumptions. But what the hell could make Natsu _that_ angry? You're not the least bit curious?" He'd asked already and only gotten a simple dismissal before Rogue got fairly upset with him, but he was damn curious himself and he knew Rogue had to be.

Rogue's sigh was filled to the utter brim with annoyance, but he threw up his shoulders in resignation. Tired of fighting the fact Sting was curious as hell, and most likely the origin of a curiosity phrase involving a cat, and that he was also curious. But it was no longer the time to be shooting shit.

"Who knows? We'll ask him when we get back." The two drifted into a brief silence before Sting glanced over his shoulder at the door. He'd been expecting their informant to show up a while ago, but they hadn't come by yet. Rogue smelled something fishy.

"We've been recognized." Sting muttered quietly to his friend. Straightening up and dropping his playful banter like it was never even there in the first place.

Rogue sighed heavily. "Who is it?"

"Someone on the other side of the bar has been eyeing us. Probably gonna try and jump us when we leave."

Rogue paused for a moment before lifting his glass to motion for another beer and gaze around the bar with the reflections in the glass to try and spot the wannabe badass. Getting jumped when they left bars wasn't uncommon, at least for them it wasn't uncommon. It took a moment but he did spot him. He was unassuming, he had black and red tattoos across his face with long blue hair reaching behind his back. But, strangely, he looked quite beaten and bruised. Almost as if he'd just gotten out of a nasty fight. He was apparently alone at his table, but that didn't mean much.

"Saw him. Should we get going or…Sting?" Rogue was planning on just leaving, but Sting had other plans.

He'd already walked over to the man's table and locked eyes with him. Just daring him to make a move. It was almost praise worthy, Sting's complete and utter lack of fear and his overconfidence that is.

These kinds of confrontations happened frequently in shady places like this. So, no more than occasional glances were given to a brewing fight unless it actually happened. The two were silent and stared eachother down with no signs of either backing down.

"You got backbone buddy, but you're starting to piss me off." He began angrily. He slammed his hand down right in front of the blue haired man hard enough to crack the table and got right in his face. "If you've got a problem with me how about saying it to my face?"

The man didn't flinch in the slightest from the aggressive attitude and merely shook his head before rising from his seat and standing a head taller than Sting. "I was going to let you go, but I can't let this offense stain my name anymore than it already has been."

Sting tilted his head mockingly and turned away with a dismissal shrug of his shoulders and giving the man his back. "I don't like beating people who apparently just got their ass beat buddy. I was just giving you an opportunity to say whatever you wanted to my face." He watched as the faces staring at him looked at him with amusement, almost like he was backing down cause the guy was bigger than he was.

"But if you want a fight I'll give you one." Sting turned his head enough to glare through the man and waited for the man to wimp out.

The man simply sighed. "Your are the White Dragon of Dragon's Keep, I was only to observe you. But I'm just going to have to kill you for your offense."

Sting almost grinned ear to ear. "You will? Prove it."

The man clenched his fists and took a step forward, but stopped almost as soon as he did.

"Why'd you stop? Come on, fight me. Kill me like you said you would." Sting was ready for some kind of confrontation, but the man stopping all of a sudden put him at a loss. But just as he was about to say something more, a nearly inaudible ringing in his ears made him stop. The man in front of him looked off towards a direction and stopped paying attention to Sting.

He turned his head towards the sound slightly and ignored the man in front of him. The sound stopped being a consistent ringing and just barely had pauses in between. Like a sort of purpose was behind the noise. But it was so silent that he wasn't sure if it was even there, there was a lot of ambient noise dragon slayer ears can pick up.

The man suddenly piped up. "You get to live today White Dragon. But the next time we meet you will be killed by my hands." Before Sting could retort, the man hastily made his exit. Leaving a confused and intrigued Sting in the bar.

Rogue stepped beside his comrade with an equally curious face; he'd not stepped in because Sting had a particular talent at pissing people off and getting them to spill why they were pissing him off. Even if they didn't want to. "I heard it too. We're following him. If he was observing us, then he _does_ have comrades. We're going to put a stop to this right now."

Sting had a thought, guess the sound was actually there and he wasn't hallucinating. "What if it's a trap?"

Rogue smirked at the thought of them being done in by a bunch of no names and found it utterly amusing. "Then we spring it. Obviously."

"What about finding Metalface?"

"I do not care right now. I cannot make myself care."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Jose was tired and angry. He finally caved and let Makarov work together with his clearly superior guild on this mission. Makarov had stayed in Crocus to take care of some business regarding…something, he didn't care to stay and hear about it. All pride aside, he was a little worried about his guild member's safety concerning the mission. But he eventually tossed it aside when he remembered how powerful and revered his elemental four were. He doubted that any of them would choose to take the guild master on if two saint wizards were going to be doing it on their own.

He was mulling on the fact of finally starting the guild war with Fairy Tail, but decided he was already on thin ice with his and Makarov's feuding. So, he decided it needed to be at another time. He sighed in resignation when he finally reached his guild he just smiled lightly and gave courteous greetings to his guild members while he made the trek to his office.

When he finally reached his destination, he was suddenly overcome with a sense of danger he could only place as intuition. But, he was a prideful man and simply shook off the feeling as some sort of paranoia. After all, high ranking people were often targeted simply because of their status. He opened the door, fully expecting nothing to be there, and was frozen in his tracks at the sight of the council's number one most currently wanted criminal rummaging through his desk casually.

Natsu Dragneel was in his office.

There was silence in the office as Jose simply was struggling to comprehend the fact that this man was barely even paying attention to the fact he was now in the office with him. Eventually, Jose was able to overcome his immense surprise and utter fury replaced it. "What are you doing in my office?" He spat through his clenched teeth. Just barely keeping himself restrained enough to not launch at Dragneel and start tearing him apart.

Natsu didn't speak for a moment, eyeing up the master of Phantom Lord before turning his eyes back to some of the papers in his hand. "I may be the guild master of a dark guild, but you've done some pretty shady shit Jose. That's a lot coming from me, considering some of the shady shit I've done myself."

Jose's eye began to twitch in anger. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here."

Natsu rolled his eyes at the attempt to seem threatening Jose was putting off. He burnt the papers in his hands after finding what he was looking for and gave Jose his full attention. "Simple, I know about your little mission. I was sizing up my competition. Starting with you. I may have also been snooping through your important files. Planning to kidnap a member of Fairy Tail who's a runaway huh? Might as well start a guild war right there."

Jose felt his eyes nearly bulge out of his skull when he heard Natsu talk about the Heartfilia mission; it didn't matter one bit to him that he knew about the surprise attack, but he continued talking before he could charge him. "Before you say anything, I'm not gonna stop you at all really. I'd do this mission in a minute if I was given it. But the dad might think something's funny if a guild other than the one he'd hired brought his daughter back so it's all yours. Man you're easy to rile up. Take a chill pill or something."

Jose was just able to calm himself down, albeit barely. Natsu seemed to have a point with what he was he going on about and seemed uninterested in the Heartfilia family's fortune. "So, you came to antagonize me? That's a path you'll come to regret. Besides, now that you've seen my guild's strength, you won't even need to snoop around Fairy Tail anymore."

Natsu shrugged his shoulders with a small laugh, angering Jose at his mocking dismissal of him as a threat. "You're right, I don't need to bother with Fairy Tail because I already know who my guild is going to fight."

Jose allowed himself to feel a small swelling of pride, but Natsu stomped it out before he could even enjoy it. "And it won't be you."

"Excuse me? Are you implying my guild is weaker than Fairy Tail?" Jose's angered words transformed into a blank emotionless tone as they left his lips.

Natsu smirked. "I'm not implying it. It's true. Dragon's Keep fights the strongest of the strong. And Phantom Lord is weak. And to prove it, here's this." He slid the black shirt he was wearing off and turned his back to Jose, showing the two scars he'd gotten thanks to Erza Scarlet, along with a couple from the flame avatar but he didn;t need to know that.

"A member of Fairy Tail gave me these scars. Just before she beat me." Sure, Erza didn't really beat him in the normal sense, but she walked away and he didn't. He pulled his shirt back on and turned back to Jose, dropping the mocking posture and crossing his arms in front of him. "No member of Phantom Lord has ever even touched me. What can you say about that?"

Jose was simply silent, uncaring that he was being mocked anymore. He was more shocked that Dragneel would damage his own pride just to mock him. "Phantom Lord was the top guild for much longer than Fairy Tail. And we still are you scum. Now leave my guild before I force you."

Natsu shook his head in disappointment. But complied, he walked past Jose, but he stopped just next to him and gave him one final message. "If you're the strongest, then prove it. You don't even have to wipe Fairy Tail out completely. Just prove you're stronger." Natsu's face took on a much darker and twisted grin. "Then my guild will come in and wipe out the loser."

With his words said, Natsu simply left the room and left a fuming Jose in his office. While no fists were exchanged, Jose stood as a man that had been utterly humiliated. He knew what Dragneel was implying, and it wasn't pleasant…for Fairy Tail.

But Jose was angry at being pushed into a guild war before he was ready to do so. He was resolute in wiping out Fairy Tail for good, and that he would, but he wouldn't let Dragon's Keep off without a scratch, they would certainly be close by to watch the conflict when it happened. He would find them, and then he would destroy them both in one fell swoop.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"We lost him. Where the hell did he go? We only gave him a five-minute head start. How'd he get so far so fast?" Sting was angry, they could track nearly anything with their extremely sensitive noses. Yet they'd lost someone within ten minutes?

Rogue was also a little upset that someone escaped them both. But it was more wonder than anger. "It's not like his scent isn't here, rather, it's more like his scent just disappeared instantly." It was true, they'd followed his scent normally until it just up and vanished.

Sting was a little wary that someone could just up and vanish. But their entire guild used magic completely lost to time and maybe that guy did too. Hell, one of the members of Grimoire Heart could age things. "I don't want to just accept that someone just up and vanished."

"You have to. We don't have a choice. We had a mission to do anyway, let's just do it." Rogue attempted to dissolve his partner's anger by refocusing it on their objective.

"I don't like it…no one's nearby, right? Why does it feel like, I don't know, that we were played somehow?" Sting had an awful feeling in his stomach, something was off. Sure, the man he was after was weird, but he had way more power than he gave away and it was easily enough to compare to his own. So, why would he just run away?

"They were observing us, that guy and his comrades we can't find, so they might have been gauging our abilities to track them." Rogue theorized this once the man seemingly vanished, but he agreed with Sting. Something really was off. "Or they could have been testing how easy you are to goad into a fight."

Sting wasn't bothered by the jab; he was too bothered by the fact he couldn't smell anything. At all. "Rogue, what do you smell here?"

Rogue was curious, where was he going with this? "Nothing, why?"

"Is it me or can I not even smell the grass, trees, or the animals nearby?"

"What are you…" He hadn't even thought about it. Things as common as the smell of grass were filtered out by the brain before he even thought about it. "Now that you mention it, it feels more like were in a sterilized room, rather than the middle of a forest."

"We've been led into a maze." Sting stated suddenly, surprising his friend.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, just a guess really. But it would explain why our culprit vanished into thin air on us. It would also explain the lack of smell, to keep us from mapping out the maze." Sting explained, taking a secondary look around his surroundings for any kind of landmark.

Rogue thought about the theory for a moment. "That's an awful big jump. But he did say he was just supposed to observe us. But I doubt he led us into a maze and got out without our noticing."

Sting continued looking at his surroundings and eventually growled in frustration. "I feel stupid. I _know_ something fishy is going on around us right now and I'm gonna find out what it is." He turned to Rogue with a determined and angry look on his face. "Let's split up and look for that blue haired bastard, but first a landmark to see if we are trapped in some kind of maze."

He didn't need to explain his next action when he coated his hand in light and punched a hole in a series of trees. Rogue sighed and pointed out the flaws in his logic. "You told me yourself on the way here that you think this guy is actually pretty tough. And you want to split up to look for him?"

"Yeah."

"What a glorious strategy."

"Just shut up and let me know if you find anybody."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Rogue looked all around and as more and more time passed, the less likely Sting's theory being wrong became. He made his own, less obvious landmarks. Like digging his feet into the dirt occasionally and tearing up the grass just enough to notice. And eventually, just like Sting thought, they were led into a trap. It just wasn't a maze.

' _Strategy really isn't your strong suit is it Sting?'_ This thought crossed Rogue's mind as he came across a young man. Shorter than him by a hair and wearing a blue coat with red and gold trimmings. His hair was a smoky grey and his eyes carried the weight of a man who'd lived past his prime. It was obvious that Sting most likely was going to run into somebody on his own, rendering their split up strategy utterly pointless.

"Who are you? And did you set this trap up for us?" Rogue demanded of the strange man who had been eyeing him from the middle of the forest path since he'd seen him. Keeping a bored and uninterested front.

"No." Was all the answer he got.

"Who did then?" Rogue was willing to forget who set the trap in favor of getting out of it, but he was going to try to figure it out.

"Our master." He said quickly, forgoing any attempt to hide that information.

"Wonderful. I assume you won't tell me anything else?" Rogue had tossed aside his coat and was standing in his regular battle attire. He didn't have any intention to hold back, especially against an unknown opponent.

"Correct." The man did the same, tossing the cloak that hid him from the dragon slayers. Because he wouldn't need it.

"What's your name? So, that way, I know what to right on your tombstone." Rogue said, his bored uninterested look transformed into one that was much more intense and excited.

"…Rey."

Rogue and the mystery man didn't need much more dialogue spoken before the two were ready to clash. They launched at one another, but a crackle of thunder followed by a wave of blue fire landed between them and kept burning at an intensity that forced Rogue to take a step back.

"Sad…" Rey said disjointed, placing his cloak back onto his shoulders and dropping the tense and aggressive nature of his posture.

"Who are you?" Rogue all but screamed in anger. He hadn't sensed even a tiny bit of presence towards this newcomer and yet they'd nearly blindsided him with an attack almost as powerful as Natsu's flames?

This figure was far different from the other one, the big difference being the big horns growing out of her head and the tail extending out of her back. She wore a confusing cloak around her body with twin snakes coiling around it and resting at her shoulders. It almost felt like he was being pulled towards her and that the snakes were staring at him. Her lengthy pink hair went down into her cloak, and it framed her light skin on her head gracefully. So well it was more like she was created, rather than born.

Something bothered Rogue about her appearance immensely, like everything about it simply _shouldn't be_.

Rather than responding to Rogue, the newcomer turned her head towards Rey and snapped her fingers. Rey suddenly turned into a tiny blue flicker of a flame and floated in the mysterious woman's hand. She stared lovingly at the flame in her hands before turning her attention to Rogue. "It doesn't matter what I say." She began, pointing her hand towards Rogue. "You won't remember."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Sting looked all over, he swore he felt a magical spike a while ago, but he couldn't place it. And now he couldn't find Rogue anywhere. But worst of all, it turned out he was wrong about being in a maze. It took him a good while of searching, but he did eventually find someone who he figured out was most likely behind him and Rogue getting trapped here.

Unfortunately, Sting attacked the chick on sight. Now the two were embroiled in an intense battle.

Sting was launched backwards from the shockwave of their two magics clashing. Angered that he was being countered at every step. "I didn't even know that a white god slayer even existed. Where on Earth did you find magic like that?"

The girl didn't bother answering him, keeping a blank and emotionless face the entire battle. She prepared herself to launch one more blast, but felt the presence of her master call for her to stop. She suddenly turned around and took a kneel in a random direction and a demonic looking woman came out of the trees from said direction.

"Who are you?" Sting demanded, angry at both being ignored and interrupted from his fight. Though, he was kind of thankful. He didn't quite know how to get past this girl's crazy similar magic that he couldn't eat. Though she could eat his magic and he called bullshit on that.

The demonic woman looked quite livid at the kneeling subordinate. And she showed it by materializing a blade of fire and impaling it through the kneeling woman's chest. She didn't even try to dodge and if they were going to kill each other then Sting wasn't going to stop her. But in a few moments, the woman he was fighting dissolved into a tiny blue flame that floated to the demon woman's hands.

"I gave you such explicit orders. Why must you break them?" The woman said, looking sadly at the ball of flame before pointing her hand towards Sting. "You dragon slayers are so good at resisting things. It's absolutely infuriating." Suddenly the blue flame in her hand grew a hundred times larger and blasted towards Sting, giving him only the time to brace for the impact.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Sting woke up with a pounding headache. Scratch that, it was more like someone cracked open his skull. He eventually got up and looked around and found they were still in a…forest? Where was he before he passed out? He looked around more to get his bearing and saw his friend Rogue also seeming lost, but not in the same kind of pain.

"Rogue, where the hell are we? What were we doing." Sting asked slowly, getting up off the ground to join his friend.

He shrugged his shoulders and rubbed his head, apparently, he _was_ in a good amount of pain. "I don't know, I know that we were hunting bounties. But that's it. We must have finished our job at some point. Otherwise why would we have been in this forest?"

Sting thought about it for a while until he nodded his head in agreement. They must have finished their job. "What do we do now?"

Rogue thought for a while. "Meet up with Natsu and the rest at the guild?"

Sting shrugged his shoulders, unable to think of a better plan.

Eventually, Sting and Rogue made their way back to the guild, but with no memory of why they passed out in the forest. They hopped down the canyon until they reached the bottom and then followed the mossy rocks until they found the entrance of their guild. The two made their way through the shack's secret entrance and to the entrance of their hideout.

When they finally arrived, Wendy and Gajeel weren't there. But Lisanna was happily cleaning away a couple of tables before seeing them and greeting them with enthusiasm. "Sting! Rogue! Glad you could make it back! Gajeel and Wendy left a while ago to catch up with Natsu. He sent a letter a day ago saying he wanted to meet you all in Oak Town. Or at least the outskirts."

Sting groaned. "For real? We literally just got here. At least let me have something for this headache."

Rogue chimed in. "I agree, I need something for mine as well."

Lisanna looked between the two of them. "You guys must have gotten in quite a rumble. You look really bad."

For the first time since they woke up the two truly took in the state of their bodies after waking up and realized that they were wearing somewhat badly shredded clothes.

Sting blinked in surprise. "I didn't even notice. Must be used to it at this point."

Lisanna rolled her eyes at the two before turning to grab a kind of first aid kit behind the desk. "You two really should work on your image. You're supposed to be scary."

"Ow Lisanna. Ow."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Gray flexed his arm a couple of times and double checked his abdomen where he'd been skewered on his old friend's ice. He could feel that he was much more powerful than he used to be. Ever since Natsu had showed up at their city, he'd been furious. Sitting there powerless and unable to do anything while Natsu bullied the old man into making Erza listen to him and make him clothes. She'd been a walking pool of rage ever since the incident. She'd cooled off since, but the point remains valid.

Two days ago, Makarov had made the announcement on who was going to take part in the mission. While he said everyone was strong in their own merits, Dragon's Keep was a powerful dark guild and an even more powerful _team._ So, he chose the strongest team Fairy Tail had to take them on, Team Erza. It included Erza herself, whom had healed completely by this point. Mirajane, Gray, whom had also healed completely by this point. And Lucy Heartfilia whom had put an extraordinary amount of work into her celestial spirit training. The day they were all looking forward too was just a week away.

While Gray was more than happy at getting a crack at Dragon's Keep, he felt an odd sense of worry pop up. Master was going to be gone until later today, even though he'd sent word that his meeting was over and that everything was fine between the two guilds a day ago and that nothing was wrong. Yet, something felt off. He decided to ask his teammates about it.

"Do you guys feel like something's wrong?" He asked, sitting next to Erza who seemed to snap out of a trance while also addressing his teammates sitting across from him.

"What do you mean? Are you trying to jinx something here?" Mirajane said somewhat bluntly, she knew talking about anything going wrong around Erza right now was just a bad idea.

"No. I'm serious. I feel this uneasiness every time I look outside. Like that Natsu is going to show up again. I don't know why but it feels like he's constantly there now. He just showed up a couple days ago, burns down most of Magnolia's forest's then leaves. Who the hell can do that?" Gray had this on his mind and just simply ignoring something that was as dangerous as this man was, was idiotic.

Mirajane looked like she was about to blow a gasket. But she didn't snap because Gray was just as worried as they all were. He was just the first one to vocalize it. "We'll be fine Gray. We've met most members of the group personally. You met two of them and one of them was a child. We can beat them guaranteed."

Gray didn't seem satisfied, but Lucy decided to pitch in to try and cheer Gray up. "If it makes you feel better Gray, I can pull double duty and take care of two dragons so you don't have to." She ended her jab with a playful wink.

Mirajane and Lucy openly laughed at Gray who suddenly got all red-faced and embarrassed. "No you don't need to do that. I can handle a dragon myself very well thank you."

Mirajane stopped laughing and readdressed Gray with more seriousness in her tone. But still with a touch of humor. "No worries anymore Gray. Do the worrying in a week and work your ass off to make sure we come back without a scratch."

Gray felt better when he was with his team and their playful jabs than he did with his worries. "Your right. Sorry I brought everybody down. But… what about Natsu."

Mirajane looked at him with a look that screamed shut up. But Erza finally decided to join the conversation. "I can say if the two saint wizards are not enough. We will still defeat him." She looked at her gauntleted hand and clenched her fist. "I know it in my heart as well as I know we are members of Fairy Tail."

"That's the spirit Erza. If we just think like that then we'll be fine." Mirajane said happily, doing her best to keep Gray's mind off the troubling feelings he's having.

Gray smiled heartily and agreed with them all. He was thinking too hard about the future. They could worry about things the day they were going to do them or not at all. "If that's out of the way, what kind of plan are we going to have? We've met pretty much all the members, except one, so does anybody have any preferences?"

Lucy spoke up first. "I actually have information on all the members right here in my magazine." She pulled out a popular magazine and, true enough, had the members of Dragon's Keep as the front cover. "Since the guild is making so much noise lately, I did a little digging and found this. It's got all the known information available to the public about each member. Minus the leader, Natsu. No one really knows about his past so his section is incredibly brief."

Mirajane looked heartily surprised and smiled a malicious smile. "With this those losers won't have even the smallest chance to beat us. Now that we know way more about them than their comfortable with." Everyone congratulated Lucy on her find, but they missed Erza's face twinge at the mention of Natsu's past. More information than she ever would have wanted to know about the man and his destroyed psyche was with her.

Lucy began her listing of each member. "This one here is the Blue Dragon. Say's her name is Wendy Marvel and that she has control of the wind. And with the information on dragon slayers that Erza told us about after she recovered from her fight with Natsu…sorry." Lucy added that last bit when she thought she might have offended the women.

Erza shook her head once all the attention was on her. "Don't worry about me I'm fine." She gestured to Lucy. "Go on."

"Right." She began. "With all that new info the council doesn't have, we can guess that she's a wind dragon slayer and can eat air and wind based attacks. I doubt this, but I think she'd be able to eat the air around her as a power source as well too. It makes sense, right?" It was a small and baseless theory, having been the only one who hadn't met a member of this guild on Team Erza. But it was a possibility the more she thought about it.

"Makes sense." Gray commented. Waiting for Lucy to continue.

Lucy shook her head in gratitude. "She's actually the youngest of the group. Some say she's only fourteen years old. And the most popular theory is that she was kidnapped and brainwashed when her dragon slaying abilities reached the guild's ears."

"That's disgusting. Even for a dark guild." Mirajane was angry, but from the very little time she'd spent with Sting, it didn't _seem_ that something like that was the case. "But it might not be true. The dragon I met," she pointed towards the picture of Sting Eucliffe. "Didn't say anything about kidnapping. In fact I think he'd be against something like that."

Gray and Lucy looked at her like she had a second head. "Are you actually defending these guys?"

Mirajane just realized what she'd said and groaned in annoyance. "When we were briefly working together to defeat the demon my job requested me to do, we actually ran into orphans…who sadly had passed on. And he got furious with the townspeople." She paused for a moment to ponder her next words, as she had thought carefully on them for some time. "It's entirely possible that the story could have been faked, but when I first found him, he was _leaving_ the village, so, it might be true."

Before Gray or Lucy could comment on anything, Erza chipped in. "Yours had a stupid quirk to them too huh? Natsu had one too, he also helped me take down the lizard my job requested me to defeat." She sighed heavily at this part every time she remembered it. "He called the thing Billy and had an enormous desire to eat it. Which we did, but that was before I figured out who he was. It tasted awful by the way, I wouldn't recommend it."

"Hang on a minute." Gray was listening quietly to both of their crazy stupid stories that they hadn't gotten around to telling them, which made him a _teensy_ bit upset. "Both that crazy bastard who almost killed you, and the guy who buried orphans, pretended to be good guys? Why bother? Nearly every little town knows who they are and their faces. Why would they even bother pretending to be decent human beings?"

"Actually, I have an idea." Lucy began, turning to another page in her book and pointing to a specific article. "A lot of the dark guilds around where Dragon's Keep is supposed to hide their HQ are going surprisingly quiet. They might be planning something. Something that needs a lot of manpower. But no one has any idea, it could be anything to attacking the council to attacking the Balam Alliance. But we're getting sidetracked." Lucy brought the conversation back to Wendy.

"She is the healer of the group. She possesses some kind of lost magic in addition to her dragon slaying power and can heal injuries within minutes." Lucy explained, pausing to let that information sink in.

"A priority target." Erza decided, knowing that everyone had reached the same consensus. Even if she was a child she still was one of the most wanted criminals.

"Exactly. So that goes to the next one. White Dragon or Sting Eucliffe. The one you met Mira." Lucy said quickly before continuing. "Anything about him that would seem to be a weakness?"

Mirajane stopped to think for a moment and came up with something minor, but came up with nothing. "Nothing I can think of that's super important, but I do have one thing. He's an ass man."

Gray snorted from the sudden comment and almost devolved into a laughing fit. It was only silenced by a glare from Erza and Lucy. "Anyway, he's a light dragon slayer according to the reports and uses some kind of holy magic and can eat the same."

Mirajane latched onto that particular detail at the end. "Did you say holy magic?"

Lucy was confused. "Yeah. Why?"

She developed an evil smirk. "Then my **Take Over** is perfect. He's mine. You know, besides the grudge and how much I want to break his pretty boy face."

Lucy sweat a little bit at the ferocity in her words but paid it no mind. Dragon's Keep deserved everything coming to them. "The next one is the Black Dragon. Or Rogue Cheney. No one's actually met him have they?"

When everybody shook their heads no she continued on.

"They say he uses shadow magic of some kind. And just like the others can probably eat it too. He doesn't have much of a personnel profile, only Natsu's is shorter, but it does say that he can meld with the shadows in the ground and stuff. In fact, it's one way he was able to break out Natsu from his execution. Rogue hid in people's shadows and sprung a trap." She paused for a moment.

"But if that's true," Erza began. "Then fighting him in a forest is suicide. He'd have a million places to hide."

"Priority two." Mirajane spat out. Then they waited for Lucy to continue.

"One more fact is about both Sting and Rogue, they, apparently, work mainly in a team with one another and are frequently seen together outside of the group." Lucy explained.

Gray almost made a gay joke, but thought against it. "So we need to split them up? I ran into the girl and the other dragon as a team too. Are they also a team that's popular?"

Lucy shrugged her shoulders. "If they are then it's not known. Anyway, now we move onto the ace of their guild. The Grey Dragon. Or Gajeel Redfox. He's a metal dragon slayer of some kind and has been seen eating various kinds of metals. With no drawbacks to the various kinds."

Erza frowned, if she couldn't take Natsu then she was planning on defeating their ace. But if that was true about him eating metals. "Then I'm his worst opponent. He'd just eat my blades. Which means Gray…"

Erza turned to her longtime friend and demanded he give her his full attention by placing her hands on his shoulders. "You'll have to face the strongest member in their guild and beat him. Can you do it? I'll do it if you don't think you can."

Gray pondered her words like she asked him too, but he didn't actually need too. "I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to beat any member of that guild that they throw at me. I don't care who it is. I will crush their ace of their pathetic guild."

The confidence and assurance in Gray's words surprised her, she'd almost never heard this from him before and it restored her confidence in her ability to stand up to Natsu when the time came. "Then that means you get the girl Lucy and I will take the shadow one. You've got her right?"

Lucy winked and gave them all a thumbs up. "You got it. But we still have Natsu's profile if you guys want to hear it."

The group looked back and forth before deciding that it couldn't hurt. Even Erza was pretty sure that they'd have something she didn't. With the go-ahead Lucy continued. "Well, they know his name. Natsu Dragneel. That he specifically is a fire dragon slayer and can eat fire. Nothing new here. It…oh…"

When Lucy just stopped reading them the article they urged her to continue, not noticing her gulp inaudibly before she continued. "It says that Dragon's Keep has clashed with every single member of the Balam Alliance and come out victorious all three times. And that Natsu on his own has…killed two different wizard saints in the past, only one wizard saint has escaped death when they fought Natsu, Siegrain. And they rate Natsu just as powerful as master."

No one knew how to absorb that information. They all simply stared at her as she continued to read background trivia about this unbelievably dangerous man. "It says a little more. They say he deliberately allowed himself to be captured several times just to prove how powerless the council was to capture him unless he let them. Other than his feats of battle, little is known about him other than the fact he's an utter sadist."

There was silence at the table for nearly an entire minute. Erza had fought the man toe to toe and gotten destroyed and even she wouldn't have put his skills that high. At the very most she wouldn't have said he was anywhere close to Makarov's power. To think the council thought he was that powerful. "That's impossible. If he was really that powerful, the magic council wouldn't even try and go after their guild. Let alone even risk giving him a public execution. That has to be fear mongering to keep the general populace away from him at all costs in a way to avoid collateral." While she wouldn't admit it out loud, Erza had a strong suspicion that Natsu wouldn't kill anybody anymore; if Porlyusica's theory was true.

Erza continued after taking a brief pause to deliberate on her next words. Much in the same manner Mirajane had done a while ago. "I've met the man twice now. Once when he almost killed me, and the other just a while ago when he attacked the city. Both times I've seen him have different ways of carrying himself, the first time he was hostile and angry. While the second he was either about to fall unconscious or he was deliberately making himself unintimidating. What were you scared of when you saw him the other day? Him or his reputation?"

The group couldn't say, they thought hard on that topic like Erza wanted, but they couldn't say what made them afraid when they met the man for the first time. It was hard to attribute these acts of slaughter to a man that acted the way he did when he'd met them the first time. "What kind of mass murdering psychopath comes directly to the place that hates him the most and says 'go nuts'? There are so many things about that man that infuriates me to the core and I won't rest until I figure out what it is. Then, after I do that, I will drag him before the council by his hair and punish him myself if I have to."

Erza really and truly hated Natsu, and they knew why, but they didn't know it bothered her this much. "Erza." Mirajane began, snapping her friend out of her tirade. "If you need to blow off some steam I can help."

Erza took a deep breath to calm herself and chastised herself silently for losing her cool like she had. "No Mira. I'm fine, go on Lucy I didn't mean to steal the show."

Lucy shook her head. "No, it's all right. If anyone has a right to get upset when we talk about this guy it's you Erza."

Erza smiled as her friends made her feel better about her outburst and smiled. _'I wish I could tell all of you what really angers me…'_

But something else bothered her besides the fact she was hiding her past from her friends. What was to become of her deal she made with Natsu to escape? She'd thought about it ever since the council set up the attack on their guild. When they won and they were all hauled off to prison, and most likely executed, what was she to do? If she wasn't going to be forced to go by Natsu's pace and assault Jellal's tower next month, then she would go with her original plan of biding her time until she was truly ready.

' _Will you ever be ready?'_ She thought to herself with a small grimace. She stared off from the table and dreaded through her internal conversation.

It was true, she'd spent most of her life trying to think up scenarios where the problem would sort itself out with Jellal and his tower. But without her intervention, there was a big chance that Jellal would never be stopped. And if anybody was going to stop him, then it would be her. It was the only reason she agreed to work with Natsu in the first place anyway. Either she stopped Jellal, or she was there to see it through.

Gray waved his hand in front of Erza's face, who had been staring in the distance for a few minutes and the entire time he was trying to get her attention. "Erza? Wake up dammit! Get outside right now!"

She snapped out of her trance and realized she was now alone at the table.

"It doesn't matter, just come on!" Gray said in an angry tone, he'd thought Erza was the first one outside, but apparently, she'd been in a super trance and didn't notice she was the only one left in the guild. So, he came back in and rushed to get her outside.

She looked around at the empty guild and was surprised. When did everybody leave? Regardless, Gray had come back to get her and she was thankful. "Lead me to it please."

Gray lead her to the front of the crowd outside the guild and showed her what had drew them all outside. The sight was a complete travesty, two of their guild members by the names of Jet and Droy looking like they walked out of a fight with the elements themselves. Covered in freezing cold water, severe burns, filthy wounds, and deep and powerful slices in their bodies. They were barely breathing and were only able to stay standing with the help of other members.

Erza was taken horrified and was filled with worry, mirroring the other members exactly. "Get them inside now! Someone go get Porlyusica and drag her here if you have too! Someone else go get master!"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Natsu waited just outside the city with a small gleeful smile on his face. It had barely taken five minutes to push Jose into doing exactly what he wanted, but whether he would do it today wasn't something he was sure of until he'd seen a couple of mages being dragged to the guild and only some of them being kicked back out. So, he knew something would happen today. Gajeel and Wendy were both with him, while they were still waiting on Rogue and Sting, it wouldn't be long until they showed up.

"What are we waiting for? Are you still gonna keep us waiting?" Gajeel complained, he hated being idle unless he wanted to be. But he was happy that his friend was in much higher spirits than the last time he saw him.

"Just a little longer until the other two show up. You can wait, right Gajeel?" Natsu said cheerily, still too giddy about how well his plan went off.

The trio were silent for another ten minutes before the two members in question showed up. "Yo. Why'd we gather outside this town? We gonna trash it?"

"That's what we've been waiting for. But he won't tell us what we're actually here for." Wendy said exasperatedly, she'd been working with Gajeel to get him to tell her why they were there for almost an hour.

"I'll tell you now that we're all here. And no, Sting, we aren't gonna trash it. Unless we have to. But, for now, we're gonna refrain from trashing any villages in preparation for the council's attack next week. So, in preparation of all the hard work we're going to be doing, I set up a show for us." Natsu began to finally explain himself, but the entourage wasn't here yet. So, he would have to wait.

When he stayed silent, Sting urge him on again. "Where is the show then? Are we early?"

"I'd say you're more late but they aren't here yet." Natsu explained with an upset look on his face. He'd been hoping that everybody would have been in the perfect position and timing. It would have been awesome. He'd have to work on it.

"So we have to wait even longer until you feel like explaining yourself?" Gajeel said incredulously.

Natsu nodded his head and sat down and began waiting. Everyone groaned and followed his example and sat and began waiting. And waited. And waited. And waited.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours. Natsu could feel the murderous gazes on the back of his head. "Maybe they aren't coming…oh wait I see them." He pointed off into the distance down the road. It was just visible that a mob was all but stampeding down the road. They briefly wondered if the mob was coming after them, but after they blew past them without even taking the time to look at them it was clear that wasn't the case.

Gajeel noticed a familiar face in the crowd. "Hey, Wendy, that's that ice guy we met at Galuna Island isn't it?"

Wendy took another look at the familiar raven black hair and spiky locks and remembered the man on Galuna Island who freaked out when he saw the giant demon Deliora. "Yeah, I think that's him."

Natsu looked weirdly at the group before he shook his head. "I didn't know you guys ran into a Fairy Tail mage, oh well it doesn't matter."

Rogue realized what was going on after he saw the furious mob of, now named, Fairy Tail mages head into town. "Master, what did you do?"

Natsu stared at his guild with a stupid smile before it turned into a much more dangerous one. "I just made two of the guilds coming after us next week fight eachother for giggles. I also want you guys to pay attention, some of these mages are going to come after us next week. So, I suggest you use this time to figure out who you want to fight."

"Wait...you made two of the top guilds in the country go at eachother?" Wendy said in surprise. "How in the hell did you do that?"

Natsu shrugged his shoulders before pulling a piece of paper from his shirt he'd swiped from Jose's office before the man showed up. "I wasn't planning on it, but the two guilds were apparently going to be fighting one another before I even did anything. Look at this." He then showed them all the piece of paper that had Jose and his guild agree to kidnapping one of the members of Fairy Tail.

"You all might not know this, but Fairy Tail is as tight of a guild as we are. And they do not like us for what I did to the red head who has my ring, yeah I know. I've got another big guild after us, shut up. So I know for a fact that a guild war was gonna spring up from this mission in particular since the two have almost come to blows in the past. I just gave Jose a little push and he was all for it." Natsu explained before remembering one little tidbit of information. "Oh yeah, almost forgot that we wipe out the loser of this guild war. Gonna aim for not murdering them all, but we will if we have to."

They all looked back and forth to one another before shrugging their shoulders; if the two were gonna fight they might as well do it now when they can point and laugh. They were already convinced they could handle the guilds at their strongest, with Natsu here and them being weakened after the war, it wouldn't be hard to swoop in and permanently wipe out the loser. "All right, let's go get a closer look at this fight. What do you say?"

* * *

 **A/N: I had a particularly difficult time writing the middle. So, if it seems forced, my apologies. Also, there's not much action this chapter because the next one is going to be pretty much nothing but action.**

 **Anyway, please leave a review if you enjoyed.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Told you I wasn't just gonna let this story die. Anyway, I don't really have much to say this time other than I decided to split Phantom up. I decided to do this because it gave more to the story than just blazing through an arc with as much fighting as this. I hope my writing skills with fight scenes isn't awful. They're not bad right?**

* * *

It sickened him, how utterly underhanded and conniving Jose was. He waited until he was busy in the capital to finally start the guild war? They had finally agreed on working together! Now, the very same day he'd made this agreement, he goes and has his members nearly kill three of his precious children? Even going so far as to kidnap one of them and do who knows what to them? He would make Jose regret every single breath he'd ever taken.

There wasn't any meeting, any planning, or any strategy. There was only the news Phantom Lord had attacked and it was time to move. No pussyfooting around like the council was making him do with Dragon's Keep. No, this time, they would listen to him and do what _he_ told them to do. No longer the other way around.

It didn't require hardly any effort, Makarov had such an untouchable, unquenchable fury for vengeance that he merely _aimed_ his magic towards the door of Phantom Lord and it turned the solid stone wall and everything nearby to dust.

Phantom simply stared in surprise, dead silent and taking in the fact that Fairy Tail had just blown the entrance to their guild to pieces.

They didn't even bother with a battle cry. Rather, it was a symphony of enraged charges accompanied by powerful shouts that mixed together into a sound that promised pain.

Phantom didn't hesitate long. They were expecting this after all; it was only a few moments before the roughly hundred Fairy Tail mages' charge was matched in both ferocity and power before being surpassed in number by the nearly three times as many Phantom mages. While still larger their cries were, it lacked the incredible fire behind that of Fairy Tail.

They met, the two super powers of the magic world clashed in a flurry of magical attacks and held nothing back. What had been building for years, all the cheap shots, turned cheeks, and threats finally culminated in an all-out battle. Phantom Lord's motivation was their burning jealousy at no longer being the undisputed most powerful guild. Fairy Tail with their family members, in all but blood, being nearly killed and kidnapped pushing them past the boiling point and out stopping anywhere nearby.

There was a difference between the two, in Phantom it was that it wasn't a universal feeling that they were angry at no longer being number one and having to share that title.

But Fairy Tail was united in its front without so much as a single shred of difference in their emotional drives pushing them to finally fight.

Though outnumbered and outgunned, their very cores drove each of them to fight harder than any Phantom mage could hope. The momentum shifted as soon as the battling started.

Erza Scarlet made her reputation proud. With the grace of a professional dancer she turned the first mage she encountered again and again into a pile of regret, pain, and sword slices. Switching her weapons and armor in the blink of an eye and combatting dozens at one time in her march to drive every member of Phantom Lord into the dirt where they crawled from.

Mirajane Strauss used the great fear she had procured over the lower class trash in front of her and used her demonic **Take Over** to truly drive into each member of the guild she destroyed how completely beneath her and the rest of her guild again and again with nary a pause for breath before she moved on to the next target. The culminations of everything she'd dealt with over the last few months and the stresses that came with them was glorious when she could release it on those who truly deserved it.

Gray Fullbuster lacked the grace that his female teammates used in their fighting and never needed it. He was more of a simple man and used his powerful **Ice Make** to create various and powerful tools to clear multiple or single enemies with just a point in the direction they should destroy. When he found a problem enemy that ignored his magic he just switched to using his fists and plowed his way through them with a smile on his face.

Sadly, the most powerful team in Fairy Tail was incomplete with Lucy Heartfilia having no choice but to stay behind and care for the two members whom had been assaulted. Someone had to and Lucy herself was far too nice of a person to abandon someone who needed help.

Of course, in the larger picture it didn't mean much with their efforts alone. Their guild behind them delivered the same results universally. It didn't matter how outnumbered or outgunned, Fairy Tail mages fought like ten Phantom mages. The same fury leading Team Erza led the entirety of the guild and it was the greatest motivator one could ask for. As Phantom began to struggle against the tenacity and ferociousness that Fairy Tail was coming at them with, Fairy Tail completely took the momentum. The guild was not even at full strength, only able to challenge Phantom with two of their five s-class mages against the six s-class mages Phantom had; named The Element Four and The Lightning Twins. Though, strangely, The Element Four were nowhere to be seen and neither were the twins.

Using hatred as a motivator only worked so long though and Phantom began to lose ground to Fairy Tail. And once it started, it sped up. With each member of Fairy Tail pushing harder and deeper into Phantom's territory and leaving less and less room in the enormous building for them to flee.

Makarov was a different story. His power was much greater than any other mage on the battlefield and it showed. His magic rolled off of him in waves and paralyzed any that thought to challenge him. The few who were courageous enough were dismissed in the most insulting way possible as the short elderly man walked slowly and angrily, shaking the ground with every step, and batting away the few that charged him with a giant hand; be it slapping them away or crushing them. His only role was to deal with the one obstacle that his children could not hope to do themselves; to defeat Jose.

He grasped the nearest Phantom mage and barked in their face. "Where is Jose?" There was a rumbling in the ground with every word he spoke and he used it to terrify the man in his grasp until he gave him the information he wanted. It wouldn't have mattered in the end though, he would have torn the entire guild down if he needed to.

The young man shook in fear. Terrified of what would happen if this man got too angry. "He's upstairs! In his office!"

With his curiosity sated he tossed the mage away and turned to Erza who had been acting as both his escort and the one trying to coordinate Fairy Tail's insane tactics. "You are in charge. I am going to deal with Jose." Even though he was beyond furious, Makarov was completely unable to bring even one harsh tone to his words when speaking to one of his own.

Erza nodded and watched as her master tear through anybody who got in his way before she turned back to her own fights and charged back into the fray.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Dragon's Keep had followed the rampaging Fairy Tail guild into the town and took great effort to ensure they weren't seen. They could see from the outside that the battle was crazily underway. Natsu scratched his chin before he turned to his friends. "Split up like we talked about. Don't interfere, I have my own plans for how I want this war to turn out."

The four of them nodded their heads and split up, using the large guild building to sneak their way in and find a place to watch the battle. Being dragon slayers their eyes were more than good enough to see the battle from plenty far enough to not get caught, but they couldn't see through walls.

Everybody was inside the building observing the two guilds like he'd told them too. He moved to follow them, but felt something off. He could smell Makarov in the building, so why couldn't he smell Jose? He stopped and took in a more thorough examination of his surroundings. It took a moment, but he could faintly smell Jose's trail leading _away_ from the building. Why would it be going away?

Natsu shrugged his shoulders. _'Whatever. I'll just follow his trail and find out anyway. One way or another, I'm watching Jose and Makarov duel it out.'_

If Jose didn't like it then that was too bad.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Lucy paced back and forth in worry, Team Shadow Gear was in complete shambles. And they don't even know how bad Levy's condition is. She dampened a cloth and placed it on their foreheads in an effort to reduce the fever they'd caught. She began looking around for medicine, but they were out. She didn't want to leave them alone, but she didn't have a choice.

"I'll be right back guys. I'm gonna go get something to help all right?" Lucy said to keep them calm, though, they didn't hear her. They were unconscious and had been for some time.

Lucy sighed and quickly left the guild and headed into town to the nearest pharmaceutical store. It took her a little while to find one that was open, but she eventually did. She was in and out faster than it took her to find the place.

On her way back, she sighed and stopped walking and looked off into the distance. "I hope everyone's okay." She desperately wanted to join them and show how hard she'd worked to defend her friends when they needed her. But Jet and Droy desperately needed someone to take care of them and she was willing to sacrifice for it.

It was surprising when it started raining so quickly; it had been sunny without a cloud in the sky just a few moments ago.

No matter, she just quickened her pace and took a shortcut through an alley. As she did it began pouring rain even harder. So, she began running. But before she could reach the end of the alley, she ran into a blue haired woman wearing what looked like a fur coat and holding an umbrella that cut her off. She went to turn around when another person, wearing a brown suit with spiky green hair cut off the other end.

"Do you like the rain? Juvia doesn't much since it follows her everywhere she goes. But Juvia has grown used to it." The blue haired woman raised her hand towards Lucy and made a circular motion with her finger.

Lucy was forcibly made aware that water began crawling up her body before almost immediately conjoining together to turn into a ball that trapped her. She found herself unable to breathe and completely immobile.

' _I can't move! What am I…wait my keys!'_ She could just barely move her hands, if she could just reach Aquarius's key then she'd be free! She used all the strength she had to claw her hand down to her belt where her keys rested and nearly grabbed them.

But as soon as she moved for her keys, the woman imprisoning her noticed and created a tendril of water and tore the keys from her belt. Using said tendril to bring them close to her face to inspect them. She shrugged before pocketing the keys, they could be worth something after the fight with Fairy Tail was over.

Lucy began to black out and could do nothing to stop it. After she was unconscious Juvia's comrade walked across the alley and joined up with her before the two began the trek back to Phantom Lord's head quarters.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Makarov stalked up the stairs to the last floor that would lead to Jose. He made a point to occasionally punch the few mages he came across through the floor and walls. Whatever struck him at the time.

He thought Jose had put his petty pride behind him long ago. But this business with Dragon's Keep and their recent mistake proved it wasn't true.

He found the door he could feel Jose was behind and simply kicked the door into oblivion. He was right. Jose was sitting in an overly grandiose chair and giving him a look that meant he saw him as utterly beneath him. It made him even more furious with the man, but he could no longer just mindlessly rampage, Jose was powerful and had to be taken seriously with a clear head.

"Why?" He demanded, less than in the mood to deal with Jose's antics. His children were fighting hard down there and he needed to end this fight with Jose quickly to ensure their safety.

Jose laughed bitterly. "Because I'm tired Makarov." He kept an angry bitter smile on his face the entire time he spoke. "Tired of hearing how you and your guild are equal to mine."

"Pride?!" Makarov spat out in fury. "You hurt three of my children so awfully because of your Kami forsaken pride?!" The lengths Jose would go disgusted him.

Jose dropped the smile on his face for a moment, but it quickly returned. "We have been number one for much longer than you have Makarov. But then you started getting bigger and more powerful, until stories of your guild members were reaching even my ears. I refuse to give you the top guild position simply because you think you deserve it."

Makarov's face twitched in suppressed fury. "I've been fed up with you since my own children were nearly dead at your hands." The lengths Makarov was going to keep his magic in check was dropping and the ground around them shook briefly. Disrupting Jose's thought projection for just a moment and leaving him temporarily see through.

"Where are you?" He'd known Jose wasn't here the second he'd walked in the door. But simply listened to see if he would tell him where he was so he could go there. But since Jose was committed to rattle on about his pride he'd had more than enough.

But, instead, Jose merely raised his hands in a dismissive gesture. "Have a little patience Makarov, after all, I thought you cared about your guild members."

Makarov halted for a moment in suspicion, but was silent.

"After all, your friends are in my possession now." Jose then showed him the image of Lucy Heartfilia bound and with a beaten Levy in a dark room.

Makarov's eyes widened in pure shock and worry. "Lucy!"

Jose grinned maliciously from ear to ear at seeing the despair on Makarov's face. He was so easy to manipulate.

Makarov realized there was a powerful magic presence behind a moment too late. He turned to face his surprise attacker just as a magic circle took all his strength away.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Get out of my way!" A swift wave of his glowing hand conjured several small pillars of ice that collided with the few mages that charged him and sent them hurtling towards their comrades. A small grin escaped his face before he grimaced with the effort to block an unseen thunderbolt with a quickly made shield of ice.

He'd run into what seemed to be an infinite number of people in his way. He was trying to find his way to Levy, but couldn't find her to save his life. ' _She has to be somewhere nearby, Jet and Droy got brought here.'_ Lost in his worried thoughts, Gray missed the lightning cloaked man bullet flying towards him at top speed. He just barely threw up his guard before the man slammed into him.

"MAN!"

What was once a speeding bullet cloaked in lightning was sent careening away straight into the concrete floor when his own guild member was tossed right into his side. Gray turned his head in surprise and dropped his shield, but quickly grinned when he saw his friend Elfman Strauss grab two mages of Phantom by the throat and use them to beat their own allies unconscious.

Elfman quickly moved to Gray's side to make sure he didn't throw one of the stray mages into him. Elfman Strauss was the brother of Mirajane Strauss and was a very large man. To prove their blood more than the color of their hair, he also used **Take Over** magic, but the **Beast Soul** variant and it only affected his one right arm; giving him the nickname Beast Arm Elfman. Well-built and excellent at using his size to intimidate and beat people like it was his job. He also had this strange quirk to work in man and manly into conversation whenever he felt necessary.

"Thanks for the save Elfman. This guy has been bugging me for a while now." Gray said in thanks, not missing how the mages attacking him seemed to back off when he finally engaged the lightning mage.

Elfman grinned. "It wouldn't be manly if I let my friend get struck in the back!" He turned towards the lightning mage who seemed unfazed by his previous attack of throwing people at him.

"Hey, isn't that the guy Erza told us about? Phantom's strongest guy?" Elfman said in curiosity, Erza had briefed a few people on the mages to watch out for before coming out here. Mainly the element four and their strongest two mages.

Gray took another look and realized that Elfman was right. He clenched his teeth in frustration, he was looking forward to being the one to fight him. But it would basically stop his search for Levy in its tracks. "Yeah, that's him. That's one of the twins."

The man was smaller than Gray and wore an open grey coat that showed he was wearing nothing underneath it and his hands were currently in his coat pockets. His pants were baggy and black and he wore sandals. His hair was a deep orange, almost red, and extremely short. "Well, to be recognized is inevitable. I am Thor. So, who's gonna take me on? Gray Fullbuster or Beast Arm Elfman? I'm not to eager to be fighting yet."

Gray frowned and turned to his friend. "I'll deal with him; you go find Levy."

Elfman's eyes narrowed slightly, unaware that Levy hadn't been found. He smacked his palm with his fist. "I'll be manly and let you have the privilege of fighting him."

With their plan decided, Elfman roared with vigor and charged headfirst into a nearby group of mages intent on causing as much havoc as possible and Gray stayed to face down the only real threat in the entire guild. "Let's dance Thor."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Mirajane craned her neck and tossed the mage she was holding as hard as she could into the ground. Feeling a resounding thud and his lack of aggressive movement tell her that he was done. She was thoroughly enjoying herself, she'd hated Phantom for a long time and giving them the punishment they'd all rightfully earned was absolutely bordering on fetishistic. For her, mainly her.

Everyone else, probably on the verge of asking her to just kill them to get it over with faster.

"Haa!" She roared a beastly roar, that was more fit coming from a man, and brought her joined hands down on the skull of the nearest mage before using her leg to spin around and kick another one square in the stomach and pick him off the ground. Carrying him purely by the momentum of her foot she tossed the poor soul directly into a group of his friends. The all tumbled like bowling pins.

With an excitement that was terrifying to the mages in front of her, she lunged towards a nearby man and quickly wrapped him in a brutally tight chokehold. She had been wondering where Levy was since she'd been kidnapped, now this dirt in her hands would tell her.

"Listen up maggot, if you want to keep walking the rest of your life then you best answer my questions." Mirajane applied plenty of pressure, and then some, to get the shaking man in her arms to spit out the information she was after. "If you don't I might turn your legs into a pretzel." Killing may have been a no-no, but brutal beatings were perfectly allowed.

She was unfortunately interrupted from her investigation when a chorus of lightning strikes struck the ground at a rapid pace heading straight for her. She swore loudly and threw the man in her arms towards the lightning and it deliberately bypassed him and continued coming at her in a fury.

She swore again and used her surroundings, i.e. Phantom's mages, as a cover and occasionally throwing them towards the lightning. It danced around them without a second thought as it continued to gain on her more and more until it was so close she could feel errant hairs of hers standing on end. She ground her teeth and turned to face the blast and try and out power it, until something blew up right in between them.

" **Explosion!"** From her left, a small tarot card flew into the floating lightning before detonating with a big payload. Enough to send the person controlling them flying into the dirt and sizzling.

Mirajane turned her head and grinned to her friend as she blew on the cards in her hands dramatically. "Thanks for the save Cana. He was getting a little close for comfort."

Cana was, well, the opposite of prudish. For a top, she simply wore a single colored blue bikini to cover her ample breast and plain brown pants and a couple of high heels. How she got high heels to work in battle Mirajane didn't know. She also had a dangling purse that she kept her tarot cards in for her various **Card** magics.

Cana smiled. "Sure thing. You looked like you needed help there so I pitched in." She pulled out a few more cards and held them in between her fingers when the man whom had taken the explosion card of hers and gotten up with a bit less than a scratch. "Oy, guy looks a little less worse for wear than he should."

Mirajane cocked her head in agitation. "That might be one of the lightning twins. Damn, Cana can I ask you to do something?"

Cana raised an eyebrow, what could she do that Mira couldn't? "Sure, what is it?"

She sighed. "Find Levy for me, I'll deal with this guy."

Cana was thankful she didn't have to fight one of the lightning twins. But merely nodded her head before turning away. "Clear a path." And with a flick of her wrist, a fierce wind blew a hole in the mages in her way.

The lightning twin tossed aside the smoldering overcoat he was wearing and stood against her in his white tee shirt and black baggy trousers. He was honestly unintimidating, with his very light orange hair and short size, it really betrayed he was an extremely powerful mage that Erza had to warn her about. "So you're my opponent? Mirajane Strauss, I will enjoy this. My name is Odin, remember when I bury you." Just as he stopped talking, lightning crackles and ice attacks were clashing at one another from across the guild.

Mirajane cracked her knuckles and assumed her **Take Over: Satan Soul** form. Turning into her demonic form. Her demon form was intimidating, but it was also quite appealing to the eyes. Her demon form revealed more cleavage than her normal leather get up and put her in a purple one piece, but she liked the way it looked a lot. Though, in exchange, it gave her a powerful tail that thumped on the ground with each agitated moment she spent not beating someone up in that form.

"Let's go loser."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Gajeel had only really been paying attention to the ace of Phantom's guild. Watching him tear through the lackluster resistance he'd met. But now he was a little interested, apparently, the ice dude from Galuna was fighting him now. It should be at least a little bit interesting now. Fairy Tail had been dominant during the battle and he was honestly a little bored. Everyone had a target to observe already, but he'd just flicked back and forth lazily, until he'd caught the two about to throw down.

He grinned like a predator. "I wonder who will come out on top?"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Sting already knew who he was gonna stalk, mainly because he still had thoughts about Lisanna when he saw her. Were they really not family? The resemblance was there, but looks could be deceiving. So, pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind, he just observed, half-interested, half-curious as to how powerful the woman he'd nearly fought those weeks ago was and if she was anywhere near his level. She had quite a demonic reputation, but it was just a reputation and he personally helped her kick a demon's ass for giggles.

He sighed as he watched her deal with pawn after pawn. He _really_ wanted to fight her. "At least struggle against her a little. Come on man she made that so obvious! Oh, looks like she finally got a fight worth watching."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Rogue was disobeying Natsu a little bit. He'd said not to interfere and to just watch and laugh. But he couldn't help it, seeing powerful mages fighting one another so hard he just needed to be closer to the action. He used his ability to blend unnoticeably into the shadows to be right on the ground floor and get up close and personal with the fighting. He knew exactly who he was going to observe, the renowned Erza Scarlet would be his target. He happened to remember the little bit of information Gajeel had told him that Erza Scarlet currently had Natsu's ring.

If the opportunity presented itself, then he would undoubtedly swipe the ring from her. As time went on though, Rogue began to understand how Erza could have stolen the ring in the first place. "I must admit, she is quite skilled."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Wendy would have observed the battle like Natsu had told her too, but no one was interesting. She watched from person to person and everyone worth wile to watch was already being watched. She was so bored and honestly was really jealous that Natsu got to watch a saint wizard fight. Speaking of, where was Natsu? She turned her head back and forth to look for him, when that failed she smelled around.

Where did he go? His smell never entered the building, so she snuck out and noticed that his scent had wandered off somewhere else. She could see a vague path into the mountains and roughly it smelled like that was where Natsu went. So, with a curious desire, she followed her master. "What the hell is that idiot doing?"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Natsu finally got to the end of the rocky pathway and looked around. It was…another guild?

Granted, it looked a hell of a lot shittier than the one in Oak Town, but it was kind of deceptively shitty. A lot like their guild actually. Huh, maybe they and Phantom could have been friends. Oh well, Jose was absolutely here and that made him wonder, was Fairy Tail getting fooled? Oh it would be absolutely fantastic if Jose was actually competent enough to pull the rug right out from underneath Makarov and make him eat his words. But only if he got to watch it happen, if he just got back and saw Makarov was beaten then he would be pissed.

"I wonder…I'll just ask him myself. Not likely that he could pull that off, but if he does it would be great to watch." Natsu laughed slightly to himself and made his way into the building, the door was a little hidden, but he could hear the people inside and that pretty much led him to the door. The big tower in the middle of the thing was a little off for a guild, but it had to be another guild of some kind. What else could it be?

He opened the door and found that it was basically empty except for a few barely lit paths that seemed to all lead the same way. It was interesting, Jose was hiding out here, but for what reason?

A couple of footsteps behind him startled him, he didn't even know they were behind him. Hiding his surprise, he turned to face the person behind him and saw a smirking Jose staring at him, or rather through him.

"Natsu, what a pleasant surprise to see you here." The lack of joy said what he really meant.

Natsu shrugged. "I said I wasn't gonna interfere, I really did just want to watch you and Makky go at it. But you weren't at the guild. What the hell is the point of this place?"

Jose stared at him with the same self-satisfied smirk on his face. "Then you missed it. I just defeated Makarov, too bad you missed it."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Gray smirked at the proud Thor of Phantom Lord. He wasn't thinking he was a challenge at all. He held out his hand and pointed towards the ground lazily, and with a whisper as chilling as the very ice he commanded he said, **"Freeze."**

Thor saw the ground freezing rapidly and frowned, he didn't want to fight too seriously today, he sighed and cloaked himself in a full body of lighting and took flight. Gray didn't like this at all and threw out spikes of ice every moment he had and had nearly clipped Thor several times. Freezing the floor had a secondary effect, now he wouldn't get electrocuted unless he got hit directly which was useful for fighting someone like Thor who could turn his body into lightning, eerily familiar to Laxus, and move faster than he could.

He'd developed this wide area freeze in case he'd ever fight Natsu personally, it allowed him to completely and utterly control the area he'd frozen. It was almost like it was a permanent **Ice Make** and it took a lot of magic. But, it wouldn't matter how hot his dragon slaying flames were; it'd never be able to melt this ice. The best part was that he could recover most of the magic used to activate the spell when it was done, good thing too because it took up a lot of magic. It had one last affect, but he doubted it would ever be used since it was far too risky.

Thor didn't like being the only one who was being attacked and flew directly at Gray, landing just in front of him but continuing to slide due to the frictionless ice. Gray used this tiny moment to clench his fist tightly and cover his hand in ice before clubbing Thor directly in the face. This made Thor completely switch momentum and slide away from Gray.

Gray, who knew this was coming, used the frozen ground to make a ramp that brought Thor straight back to him. He used his ice to create a giant hammer made of ice and smirked evilly. He brought it down with every ounce of strength in his body.

But Thor had long since recovered and was no longer somewhat avoiding the fight, now he was mad. He coated himself in lightning again, and while still sliding, used it to increase his speed to be far faster than Gray was ready for. He slammed into the ice mage and carried him into the air before slamming the two of them back down.

Thor climbed out of the crater and wiped the dust from his coat. It was unnecessary to check if his opponent was finished, he saw him unmoving in that crater. There was no further need to check on a shattering body…wait…shattering? Bodies don't shatter.

"It's a clone." Gray muttered softly from behind the surprised Thor.

He didn't give the man even the smallest time to react before he used the ice hammer from before to crush the man's body with a full power swing. The man skidded on the ice and bounced several times before he came to a stop. He shakily crawled onto all fours and stared at Gray with eyes full of pure and utter hatred.

Gray smirked from his superior position and rested the ice hammer on his shoulder before taking up a mock fighting stance and practically bouncing on his feet. Waving his hand in a 'come on' gesture to further mock his opponent. "Come on Thor, show me how tough you are. I'm disappointed."

Thor was visibly seething at this point; he'd been made a fool of and it was all because of this no name ice wizard? That was unacceptable. "I'll show you why you'll regret fighting me."

Thor took flight again and charged a ball of electricity in his hand and aimed it at Gray. **"Thunder arrow."**

Like its name suggested, it shot incredibly fast bolts of lightning at Gray, whom was barely able to throw up a shield of ice to block the blow. Thor rapidly changed places and fired again, and again Gray barely guarded. He did it over and over, twice hitting Gray and leaving him open, but he used the ice he had complete control over to put a stop to the follow up and move him to different area away from him.

Thor was getting angry, and it showed on his face. "You are but a simple **Ice Make** wizard, how can you have such rapid and precise control over it?"

Gray smirked and took a long look around at his ice floor and kicked it lightly with the tip of his foot. "Because I'm cheating. This floor is basically one big piece of unmade **Ice Make** that I can do what I want with at pretty much any time."

Thor looked at the floor of flawless ice and frowned. "A technique like that must have some drawbacks. As well as being easily destroyed!"

Thor raised his hands high above his head and formed large ball of condensed lightning in his hands. **"Zeus's Arrow!"**

Rather than the fast, small bolts he was firing earlier, this bolt carried with it a deafening sound of thunder and was massive. Gray barely had enough time to raise a strong enough shield in preparation for the attack. Almost instantaneously, the massive lightning bolt crashed into the place Gray sat and his shield with a deafening crack of thunderous proportions.

Thor laughed loudly from his floating position. That was more than enough to destroy the aggravating ice wizard and it felt good to show the idiotic Fairy Tail wizards the gap of power between them.

"What are you laughing at?" Came a cocky voice from the dust cloud that his attack had created.

Thor stopped laughing and looked towards the area where he'd launched his attack and saw…nothing. The frozen floor was still there and Gray was standing there, leaning on his ice hammer like nothing had even happened.

Thor was utterly taken aback, he hit that ice far harder than he needed to, yet it still was there without a scratch? "Surprised? You shouldn't be this ice is invincible, you should probably guard now."

Thor was completely unprepared to defend when an ice pillar shot up from behind him and crashed into his back. The situation repeated itself before he was battered around and sent one last time straight at the hammerless Gray. His hands glowed with his ice magic and punched Thor straight through the ice pillar that was supposed to stop him. He'd hit Thor so hard Gray was convinced he'd broken his hand, thankfully, he'd put magic around his fist that basically turned it into a hammer, so Thor's face was the more likely to be broken.

To Gray's surprise Thor shook violently as he climbed to his feet bleeding from his lips. He was smiling and his eyes almost glowed with the amount of electricity coiling around his body at this point. He was cackling to himself, loudly, so loudly that Gray could hear him from across the field and it was eerie.

Thor spread his arms wide, Gray suddenly felt the air around him begin to get more charged, and all of it being gathered by Thor. His arms were coated in an extremely thick amount of electricity and it repeatedly jumped off him and struck the floor, breaking it momentarily before Gray's **Freeze** froze it back again, making Gray's eyes widen at the sight.

Thor smirked and spat on the icy ground that inhibited him so badly. It was invincible? He would prove him wrong, dead wrong! **"Thunderous Rage: Great Storm!"**

Gray knew that this attack was leagues above the last one he'd thrown at his ice; he could feel the electricity starting to affect him even though he wasn't even being touched by it. He used all the power his frozen floor provided him with and made the strongest shield he could. Just in time to take the attack head on.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

The Lightning twins were supposed to be strong, Mirajane knew that. But this guy was honestly in a league of his own, he would take her attacks head on with strength his small form betrayed and would fight back with something just as powerful as she'd hit him with. She growled and parried one of the fists he'd sent her way and brought her fist into his chin. With the opening, she grabbed the back of his head and brought her knee into his stomach.

Hearing the air leave his lungs, Mirajane grunted and threw him into the nearby wall. Taking a brief moment to catch her breath. Odin jumped to his feet, set his feet and pounded his fists together and lighthing crackled between them. He charged and Mirajane braced herself.

He threw his fist forwards and Mirajane blocked it, but he completely vanished from her sight. Just from the corner of her eye, she managed to back up and avoid a high punch that nearly connected with her face. Again, just barely dodging him he vanished right after again.

"What is this? Hyper speed?" Mirajane growled out frustrated. Looking in all directions until she found Odin dive bombing her from above. Just with enough room to breathe Mirajane took off into the sky and chased after the man where she could keep her eyes on him and his speed was slower than hers in the air.

She grinned and unexpectedly cut him off and with a solid kick she brought her foot down on the back of the surprised Odin's skull. He flew into the ground and bounced off the cement and Mirajane dive bombed the man himself. But unlike him, she hit her mark and drove both of her feet into the man's stomach and watched in glee as he finally staggered in getting up.

"You are very strong Mirajane Strauss. Stronger than I anticipated." Odin groaned in pain when he spoke, obviously her sky attack had done some lasting damage.

"I'll admit, you're pretty tough on your own, though you haven't touched me yet." Mirajane was a little worried, she knew he was hiding something. And the fact he wasn't even remotely worried about the possibility she was stronger than him was a little off putting.

Odin glared at her with malice. "You have seen nothing yet woman."

Odin suddenly launched to his feet and charged Mirajane with a speed and strength that seemed double that of what he'd previously charged her with. He shot out with several lightning coated punches that grazed her forearms when she had no choice but to block them. It dawned on her that his previous wounds were basically being ignored.

"Stay down!" Mirajane shot out with her own lightning quick counter and caught Odin dead in the throat. She followed up with another shot to his eye followed by a high kick square in the temple. Odin was completely stunned and held his face in agony.

Mirajane wasn't done with him yet and snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso. She flapped her wings and flew into the air before flying at top speed in several circles before tossing Odin as hard as she could into the floor. So hard in fact, he'd made a crater in the ground he'd crashed into.

Mirajane panted from the effort and strength she'd put into that last barrage. Hopefully it was enough to keep him down. "Like I said kid, stay the hell down."

Odin groaned before he kicked off the floor onto his feet and spit out a single drop of blood on the floor. He turned to her and glared angrily at her. "I think I need to take you seriously. If not you're just going to keep throwing me into the concrete."

"It's a fight punk." Mirajane began. "You're supposed to crush your opponent. Besides, you started this when you attacked Levy, Jet, and Droy you bastards."

Odin merely sighed and merely crouched down and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, electricity crackled around him more and more until it coated his entire body. He made a few gestures with his hands and the lightning followed his commands and flowed to his legs and arms before fading away.

For the first time in their fight, Odin flew towards Mirajane so fast she couldn't react to his punch in time and was carried into the air from his punch. He left a trail of lightning in his wake and followed after her. But Mirajane had recovered at this point and flew off in another direction trying to get some ground from the kid that she knew she was faster than.

He surprised her again and appeared in front of her with an awful crack to her jaw. He'd followed up much faster and caught her square in the jaw again. Like lightning he rapidly delivered a series of punches to her entire upper body that she could barely block. Just barely able to keep from taking the full barrage.

He wound up his leg to give her one last kick, it glowed with the lightning inside of it before he delivered a lightning charged kick to her abdomen that electrified her entire body as they floated there briefly.

Odin panted and attempted to lower his leg, but felt a resistance. He frightfully noticed that Mirajane didn't look all that fazed by his barrage of attacks or his kick and now held his foot in place with an angry smile on her face. "That was a mistake kid."

She brought her elbow into his knee in a flash and used his leg to toss him into the wall. Just as he was bouncing off it she crashed into him and slammed his face into the wall before holding him up by the face and flying down into the ground _again_ and crashing his skull into said ground. Before he could even try to escape, she refused to let her grip on his head loosen and grinded his face into the shattered cement before kicking him so hard in the stomach he got lodged into the wall.

"Hell of an attack. But if that's you being serious, then you're gonna have to try a hell of a lot harder punk." Mirajane mocked him, his attacks hurt, but she'd given him a lot more damage than she'd received. Much more.

Odin shook briefly before yanking himself out of the stone, he rubbed his damaged knee for a moment before rubbing the trickle of blood on his forehead away and furiously staring at Mirajane. "I'm extremely durable, let's see if you cave before I do."

Mirajane was about to charge him again before a crackling of thunder interrupted them and the two of them could see off in the distance the other thunder twin fighting someone using…ice?

Mirajane's eyes widened in recognition and worry. "Gray!"

She turned towards the smug Odin and weighed her options. Continue fighting Odin or check to make sure Gray wasn't about to get himself killed. The answer came to her almost immediately and she quickly took flight towards her comrade. An attack that powerful had to do some serious damage. With an excited smile, Odin casually flew after her. Content to let her find whatever smear of her teammate was left.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Thor panted briefly before laughing as loudly as possible. "No pathetic ice wall is gonna keep me from trashing you and your guild you pathetic Fairy Tail wizard!"

The dust cloud he caused was massive from his spell. He floated down and waited for the dust to dissipate on its own and eventually it did. The lightning around him faded away and around him was nothing but destroyed cement and a wounded Gray standing at the center in shock.

Gray couldn't believe what just happened, he'd developed that technique with Erza and Mirajane's help and had them throw the strongest thing they could at it and they'd only managed to crack it. But this guy had managed to utterly destroy it and hurt him in the process. Did that mean…

This guy was stronger than both Erza and Mira?

But, he wasn't all that hurt. Sure he was in pain, but he'd been in much worse. He doubted that Thor had been. He smirked to himself at the thought, maybe he'd surpassed Erza and Mira himself. With that thought, he jumped to his feet and stared defiantly at the surprised Thor.

"How can you still stand?" Thor demanded of him, this man had the audacity to survive and stand as if he was only minorly inconvenienced by his injuries?

Gray smirked at the infuriated Thor and tossed his ruined shirt aside, but before he could speak anymore he heard someone land next to him. He realized it was Mira by the worried tone in her voice. "Gray! Are you all right? I saw that attack and I had to make sure you were all right."

Gray smiled with a cocksure attitude. "I'm fine, the guy just managed to break the **Freeze** spell we made. But I'm fine and that was pretty much the strongest thing he could throw at it." He wasn't worried, the other use that his spell had was only really useful once he knew how strong something was after it was shattered. "Bad part though, I've only got one of those left before I can't make it anymore. Otherwise I'm fine."

Mirajane stared at the wounds he'd received from that last attack, even with all the defenses that spell enhanced him with. Gray was being too cocky, if that attack had hit without his new spell…

"Nice job bro. You managed to terrify my opponent with your crazy tactics." Odin had finally arrived and lazily landed next to his brother whom was fuming that Gray had survived. "Oh wow he survived, you getting weak bro?"

"Shut up!" Thor snapped, breathing a calming breath before turning a condescending eye to the pair of Gray and Mirajane. "Impressive shield you had there admittedly, but you all may as well be a fish flopping around in a desert."

"You can jump and look for water all you want but you're still gonna drown." Odin finished for his brother.

Mirajane looked back and forth between the two and back at Gray and clenched her fists tight. She knew Gray wasn't tough enough to take them on, she'd have him go get Erza. She refused to just let him die here because she was foolish. It happened once, it won't ever happen again.

"Gray-" She began, until a powerful quake shook the entire guild and a great hole opened in the ceiling. A lone figure was seen falling through that hole before crashing into the ground and halting the battle all around them, completely beaten.

It was Makarov.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"You beat Makarov already?" Natsu began with a quizzical look before laughing it off. "That's crazy, I'm right here and so are you, you're telling me you beat Makarov without lifting a finger against him?"

Jose smiled widely as his thought projection merged with him and brought its memories of his successful plan going off. "Yes, I did. Makarov is so easy to manipulate. He cares about his guild members so much that all I had to do was show him the image of his children being captured and he left himself wide open."

Natsu was silent for a moment, exploiting Makarov's kindness was praiseworthy, but that very kindness was something that made Natsu respect Makarov. So, seeing him fall by something like that wasn't the way he wanted to see the old man go down. "I'm honestly a little cautious about that. But I don't plan to interfere with this guild war. But whether or not I respect Makarov, I'm not gonna save his life and interfere with a war he himself agreed to fight."

Natsu began walking towards Jose impassively before walking past him and towards the door. He stopped though and left with a single question. "You proved me wrong Jose, I know who the loser is."

Jose laughed hard at Natsu's preparation to wipe out Fairy Tail. "Oh no I'm not done yet. When I'm finished with Fairy Tail, you'll know."

Natsu frowned before he sighed in resignation. "Whatever, is that two Fairy Tail mages in that tower in the middle of the courtyard?"

Jose was surprised he knew about that, perhaps Natsu and his guild should be taken care of more quickly than he anticipated. "I don't like that you know this information."

Natsu made a dismissive gesture. "I can only hear them. Dragon slayers have better senses than you humans. I just find it a little funny is all that you actually went through with kidnapping two pointless people in a fight you, in your own words, would always win."

Natsu left the second guild in haste after that. If Jose could pull the rug out from under Makarov like that, he might be able to pull some sort of trick on him if he wasn't careful. But, if Jose tried that, then Dragon's Keep would wipe out every member of their guild with a gleeful smile.

But he was curious, he wondered how the two Fairy Tail mages would react to seeing him, he thought about it for a moment; but a small and resounding slap across the face brought him out of his musings. "Ow. What the hell Wendy?" he rubbed his recently slapped cheek in pain.

"Watching this guild war was your idea! What the hell are you doing walking off out of nowhere?" Wendy demanded, upset at having to come and hunt him down.

"I didn't smell Jose in Phantom Lord's guild. Turns out he was hiding here guarding two Fairy Tail mages he kidnapped. One for money and the other one probably because he gets off on hurting Fairy Tail mages." Natsu explained without an ounce of sympathy.

"You found no reason to tell us this because?" Wendy said impatiently while tapping her foot and her arms crossed.

"Well, I know the general strength of Fairy Tail already. You don't. I told you to watch that battle to make sure you know who you want to fight next week." Natsu explained again.

"If you didn't tell us not to interfere, I'm pretty sure I would have expected you to spring the two fairies out of Jose's place." Wendy said exasperatedly.

When Natsu was silent for a moment Wendy looked at him with confusion. "Do you want to?"

Natsu shrugged his shoulders. "I wanted to watch Makarov and Jose fight, and Jose did screw me out of that somehow. It would suck if Jose's prisoner's mysteriously escaped but I'm not that petty."

Wendy stared at him as if he grew a second head. "You are absolutely that petty."

When Natsu began walking away and ignored Wendy's comment, earning him a kick in the shins, he remembered something perhaps somewhat crucial. "Aww damn, I think I need to bail out Fairy Tail. A little. Not much."

When Wendy began to ask him to elaborate the two of them twisted their heads down the path they'd come down. "Well, look who's coming now."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Erza was completely unprepared for the sight before her. When she saw Makarov go after Jose upstairs, she expected to see Makarov come back down after some time. Not see her master plummet through the floor on death's doorstep!

She rushed to his side and noticed his sickly green complexion. It was obvious that something foul had happened upstairs and that Makarov had been the victim of something nefarious. Erza could feel the fire in her to fight die inside when she saw her master like this. And with just a quick glance around her, she wasn't alone.

Everyone from Fairy Tail suddenly lost something they couldn't really describe and didn't fight as hard. While on the other end, Phantom Lord yelled that Fairy Tail's master was defeated and that it was time for them to push to victory. In a matter of moments, the momentum of battle shifted completely from Fairy Tail to Phantom Lord decisively.

She looked around and saw her friends and comrades suddenly losing dominance in the fights they were handling. Fairy Tail mages were finally beginning to fall. And once it started it didn't slow down.

She knew what she had to do.

She quickly scooped Makarov up and put him on her back. She turned and bellowed an order that physically made her sick. "Retreat! Fairy Tail! Full retreat!"

She saw her comrades look back and forth at one another before starting to obey her and begin to retreat. She saw that both Gray and Mirajane were still encouraging people to fight, she'd been watching both of their fights, and ran to them with their sickly master and told them to stop.

"We have to retreat! Gray Mira! We must! Master can't fight like this! He could die!" Erza told them, ignoring the utterly ecstatic faces of the phantom mages across from her.

"We can't leave yet! We can still do this!" Mirajane said with conviction, though it almost unnoticeably faltered when her eyes landed on Makarov.

"What are you talking about Erza? We can still…" Gray wanted to continue his tirade. Cheer Erza up and get her out of her funk, she was just upset and worried about Makarov like they all were. But Erza stopped him, not physically, but with her tears.

Erza was crying, begging him to just retreat and swallow his pride.

"Please. Gray, Mira please just retreat now while we still can." Erza begged, her head down as tears fell off her face in rapid pace.

"Dammit. Retreat! Everybody! Listen to Erza! Fairy Tail! Full retreat!" Gray shouted angrily. Turning to run with everyone in his guild and pouring out of the building.

It enraged him that they had been pushed back, and it made him angrier that he wasn't able to find Levy. He stopped running and slowed down.

No, he would get Levy and bring her back. They wouldn't keep her here even one more second than necessary. He snuck away from the main group retreating and found a lone Phantom member in the corner of the guild that seemed to be knocked unconscious at one point. He looked around and noticed that Phantom as a group was too busy celebrating how they'd driven them off. He smiled to himself with more than a little ill intent. He grabbed the man and snuck off, no one was the wiser.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"I Wasn't expecting that. wonder how they beat Fairy Tail's master?" Gajeel asked to himself mainly. They were waiting outside the guild out of sight and watching Fairy Tail retreat. Sting and Rogue were there, but they were mainly ignoring the fact since they'd gotten some equal parts interesting and upsetting news.

Mainly the Fairy Tail mages being a disappointment.

"I don't know Gajeel. But let's just find Natsu and get to wiping out the loser already. I'm really in a crappy mood." Sting said with a surprising angry tone.

Rogue fully agreed and the three of them waited until the Fairy Tail mages were done retreating. The path was clear and they all hurried down the path that Natsu's and Wendy's trail was going. It took them a short time before they saw the two of them waiting on the path.

Natsu waved lazily. "Yo guys. I heard about the disappointing finish."

Gajeel was angry at being abandoned. "What the hell were you doing here? Why weren't you watching Makarov and Jose fight?"

Natsu shrugged. "Because I knew something was fishy from the start is the short version. Jose wasn't anywhere near his guild so I came where he actually was hiding."

Gajeel didn't seem satisfied with the answer. But accepted it as being the only real answer there was. "So, when do we wipe out Fairy Tail? They pretty clearly lost the guild war."

Natsu shook his head. "Jose said he isn't done yet. Don't know what he's gonna do, but he doesn't want us to wipe out the loser yet. So, we have to wait."

"Really?" Sting complained, but when he got a nod as an answer he groaned. "Remind us to never listen to anybody ever again."

Natsu nodded but coughed into his hand. "So, who wants to free to Fairy Tail mages from Jose out of spite since he stole our great big finish?"

Four hands, four hands went up at that point. Natsu took a meticulous time to count them just to make sure. He placed his hands on his hips and shook his head, expecting an answer like that. "All right. Now who wants to carry them back? Because one of them most likely can't walk."

Zero hands. They may have been spiteful, but not _that_ spiteful.

Natsu shook his head again. Expecting the same answer. "All right, you guys head to Magnolia. I think I might stick around a little. See if Jose is gonna pull any weird stunts. I didn't like the way he was looking at me earlier and I don't want him to succeed and wipe us all out somehow."

Again, Natsu was sending them off to do their own thing. But, whatever, the guild war could still be somewhat interesting somehow. They left with not too much of a hurry, but they would get there in a few hours. A little after Fairy Tail themselves would get there.

Natsu rubbed the back of his head, he didn't really know what exactly he was going to be waiting around for. But he knew he was, so, perhaps, it was best to wait for Jose in his own guild? A front row seat would be interesting. With his mind set, he started his journey back to Phantom Lord's building with a tiny smile. If Jose was gonna swipe his fight to watch he just might make another one.

To his surprise, Natsu could hear someone coming down the path just out his sight. He frowned, was this something else Jose was going to throw at him? He was _almost_ convinced that Jose was going to try something towards his guild, but already? He doubted it, but in his fashion, he just stood arrogantly in the center of the path. If they wanted a fight they would get it.

Just a few minutes later, Natsu was face to face with someone he immediately dropped his guard for. Just a simple Fairy Tail wizard.

"What are you doing here?" Natsu asked the man in front of him, he was from Fairy Tail if the mark on his chest was any indication. But why would a fairy run all the way out here?

Gray was frozen on the spot, he'd learned not only was Levy captive in this place, but Lucy too. But this wasn't something he was in any way prepared for. Why did he run into Red Dragon here of all places and all times?

"What the hell are you doing here?" It just absolutely reeked of something awful if Natsu was nearby where Lucy and Levy were being captured.

Natsu sighed and pinched his nose. "I just asked you that. How about answering my question before asking your own?"

"Shut the hell up you bastard!" Gray snapped at the man, feeling his magic pulse in anger in response to meeting this guy in person for the first time. "Why are you here? Are you working with Phantom?"

Natsu laughed openly. "Nah. I'm not, I wouldn't work for a rat like Jose unless someone forced me too. And I only know like three people who could even try."

Gray swallowed and could feel himself breaking out in a nervous sweat. This was the perfect chance! Natsu was here and alone and he could finally get back at him! But then he wouldn't be able to save Levy and Lucy.

Gray clenched his teeth and set his feet. If Natsu was gonna get in his way then he'd just go through him.

"Oh?" Natsu said amused and interested. "You wanna fight? You know that I'm stronger than you so why bother?"

"I don't give a damn if you are ten times stronger than me, I need to save my friends and if I have to go through you to do it then I will!" Gray shouted at him, feeling higher on adrenaline than he ever had before.

"You're here for them?" Natsu said with a bit of confusion before he snapped his fingers in realization. "Oh right your both members of the same guild. That's why you came here I'm an idiot."

"Tell me though, how did you find your way here in the first place?" Natsu was curious, he only found this place by following Jose's trail. How did someone like this guy find it? He obviously was no tracker.

"I don't think I'm gonna tell you. Get out of my way or I'll make you." Gray was through wasting time with this parasite in front of him.

Natsu shrugged, uncaring. "Sure, go save your guild members. They're in the top floor of that big tower in the middle. Thought you'd like to know."

Gray was taken aback by just being let through, usually someone would fight on matter like that. But he was more distracted by the latter part of his statement. "How the hell do you know where they are? Did you put them there?"

Natsu stared at him before sighing. "No, I can hear them. I was gonna say you shouldn't judge people but I am probably someone who should be judged." He started walking past Gray who was highly on guard but stopped next to him. "Do me a favor and actually win your stupid war. I don't want to look stupid. Oh, tell Erza I said hi. I want to fuck with her head before next month."

Gray took a swing at Natsu and surprisingly connected with his cheek. He hadn't put any magic in that, but he thought Natsu would at least stagger a little. Natsu grinned and just swatted his hand away and then started walking away. "I wouldn't do that again; else I might actually make you regret that."

Natsu vanished from his sight after a while and Gray could feel himself release the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He looked at his hands and saw he was shaking in rage, but he shook his head to clear the thoughts and focused his intentions on springing Lucy and Levy. He briefly wondered what Natsu meant by next month, but ignored it since he thought Natsu was deliberately screwing with him.

He got to the tower without any further interruptions and found it didn't have any doors. Rather, it was just a large tower. He didn't have any grounds to believe Natsu's words, but didn't have any means to disbelieve them either. He swore in defeat and created a staircase of ice to the top floor. He could see windows on the outside, but nothing else. Out of options and not wanting to be out here on his own for so long he just did what came naturally.

Namely kicking the window in.

To his immense surprise, Natsu was actually right and hadn't deceived him. Lucy and Levy were both there, Levy was unconscious and Lucy was shielding her eyes from his window kicking stunt.

"Lucy! Levy! I managed to find you guys, hurry up we have to get out of here." Gray hurriedly rushed in and undid both of their bindings. He placed Levy on his back. "Follow me down the stairs I made." It was quick and uneventful, but once they made it down to the ground Lucy was visibly crying.

Gray was sure that she'd be thankful for being saved. But not tears worthy. "Relax Lucy, I'll always save you if I need to save you. You don't need to cry about it."

Lucy instead shook her head. "I'm sorry! This was my fault!" Before Gray could interrupt, she kept going on. "I lied about my identity to you guys. My full name is Lucy Heartfilia and my father asked Phantom to get me back from you guys. If it wasn't for me then this war wouldn't have happened! But I still want to be in the guild! I love it there and I love you guys! Please don't make me leave."

Gray was confused. "Why would we kick you out?"

Lucy was confused. "Because I lied to you and started this war."

Gray shook his head. "Stop crying, you're just Lucy to us. Nothing else matters, you're part of Fairy Tail and that ain't ever gonna change unless you want it too. You don't, right?"

Lucy shook her head vigorously, the tears in her eyes whipping off her face.

Gray held out his hand. "Then you're still gonna be part of Fairy Tail until you die. Come on, we have a war to win."

* * *

 **A/N: Yes! I know Thor and Odin are the most original names for thunder wizard villain ocs fucking ever shut up. I'm awful at names.**

 **Please leave a review if you enjoyed or saw anything worth mentioning.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: What is a break anyway? Oh well, college is good at taking my free time away from me. Gotta play smash bros with my bros at least three hours a day.**

 **Anyway, welcome back after my long hiatus...again. Though, summer is coming up in a couple of weeks and I have had absolutely nothing to do, so I started finishing up this chapter and immediately wondered why I stopped.**

 **Though, to be fair, the main reason I didn't update for a while is because I wasn't satisfied with this chapter. It felt too short and the quality felt lower. But I came back to it after a bit, and was very confused why I felt like that. Whatever, I got it and I have a question and I want to know your guys' opinions.**

 **Some omakes or quick shorts, I have ideas for dozens but I can't really work them in the story so I'll be writing them. But here's the question, do you guys want the omakes at the end of the chapter or do you want them separately uploaded as omakes so you can ignore them? There is one at the end of this chapter to give you guys an idea of what they'd be like. They won't always involve the dragons, they could involve anybody. Though it's safe to say they'll always be in them because they are very fun to write.**

 **Let me know whatever way you want, review pm whatever. Please enjoy.**

* * *

Boy, he really had made a reputation for himself the past few months. Natsu had walked into Phantom with the intent of beating a couple people to unconsciousness or death, whichever came first really, but instead the celebrating mages instead stopped cold when his familiar visage that had been extremely popular as of late froze them all in their place. No one really had the courage to face him. Sure, once he walked in all the eyes were on him. But he put down both Thor and Odin when they tried to attack him, thinking he was a Fairy Tail wizard, after that no one came after him. All of them now far more aware of the difference in power then they would ever like to be.

He didn't bother speaking to anybody, rather, he just went to the first available seat and plopped down on it and waited for Jose's slow ass to get there. He may not have said it out loud, but Natsu's respect for Phantom Lord had risen a little over the course of the guild war, the guild itself had his respect, he still considered Jose pathetic. They'd driven off Fairy Tail rather fast and dealt with their biggest threat, Makarov in that same time and the Fairies ran off with their tail between their legs.

' _Wait… do fairies even have tails? I'll have to ask Makky… oh wait… god dammit. Maybe I'll bother Scarlet about it later… or maybe that raven haired douche that hit me earlier. But should I go before or after the war is through?'_ Natsu had the urge to head to a library for probably the first time in his life, but decided to just wait and see how things turned out with the war and Fairy Tail's imminent destruction and ask them about it then, if he still remembered by then of course.

After what felt like the most agonizing twentyish minutes of his life Natsu heard Jose walk through his door. And he could feel the rage permeating from him in waves as he stomped over to where the dragon slayer was sitting. Natsu being completely uncaring of all the angry glares being sent his way.

To his credit, Jose did manage to keep himself under control, at least a little. While he did not fear Natsu, he was wary starting anything with all his guild members right there whom could possibly get caught in the crossfire. "What are you doing here Dragneel?"

Natsu shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care, which he didn't. "You stole my wizard saint fight, so either two things are gonna happen because of that." He stood slowly and cracked his back to further enrage Jose by showing how unintimidated he was. "You either give me my front row seat of watching you wipe a guild out, or you and I fight. I'm pretty damn bored and so are my dragons. We don't like to watch fights that we could be part of."

Jose nearly felt his veins burst in fury. Natsu was calling him out right in front of his guild and no matter their strength levels, if Natsu really was outclassed he could just start damaging the guild and ruin the mobile headquarters and ruin the spectacular finish he had in mind for the guild war. He was too far in to dismiss his grand finale.

' _Dragneel has disrespected him for the last time! Time to put a little bit of new information to the test.'_ During the aggravating briefings he and Makarov has received when attempting to work things out for a cooperative mission, Siegrain had revealed that Dragneel showed signs of immense motion sickness while being transported to his prison in a carriage. They only found this out by accident, lacking the manpower necessary to transport him without one. They instead threw magic restraint cuffs on him and tossed him in the carriage with a squad of soldiers observing him. When they reported Natsu had violently succumbed to motion sickness, he almost didn't believe it until he saw all the vomit in the carriage.

Natsu stared at him expecting an answer, but to the trained eye it was noticeable that he was more than prepared if Jose decided to fight right there. Jose sighed heavily feeling all the expectant gazes on his back. "All right, fine. You can have your front row seat."

He turned to face his watchful guild with a devious smirk on his face that his guild could see but Natsu could not. "Prepare the mobile headquarters for deployment. Let's give the fairies a little surprise, shall we?" He finished and watched as his guild took a frenzied pace and got to their positions to set up the mobile headquarters.

Satisfied, he turned back to Natsu with a noticeable smile. "Follow me Dragneel, you want your seat you'll get it."

He enjoyed the suddenly confused look on the dragon slayer's face. "What's wrong Dragneel? You look perplexed."

Natsu stared hard at Jose. "What the hell do you mean by 'mobile headquarters'?" His voice was hard and he didn't have that aggravating calmness in his voice. Instead it had more of a tone that Jose was comfortable with. Fear.

Before Jose could respond, a Phantom Lord member came up. "Preparations are done sir. We're ready when you are."

Jose smirked ear to ear towards Natsu and dismissed his guild member. Within moments of his affirmation, the guild began shaking and creaking as it began the quick process of transforming into a walking robot of destruction.

The look on Natsu's face transformed into one of realization. "Jose you-" He was unable to keep talking before collapsing to his knees and clenching his stomach in agony and his face taking on a sickly shade of green.

Jose couldn't contain his boisterous laughter. "You arrogant fool!" He began, before walking up next to the sickly dragon slayer and stomping on his head. "Did you think my guild and I so weak that you could walk in here and do whatever you want with no consequence? Ha! You moronic, ignorant, and foolish boy!"

Jose had his fun on the mostly silent Natsu while his guild smirked and laughed. He'd been so high and mighty until the guild started moving and it was hilarious to see such a terrifying criminal at their complete and utter mercy. After a moment, Jose caught his breath and put his foot underneath Natsu's chin and lifted his face that was clenched to try and keep from vomiting.

"How does it feel to experience the power of-OWW!"

Jose's monologuing was cut off rudely by Natsu suddenly and viciously biting down on the foot under his chin. Jose was busy hopping around on one foot trying to shake Natsu off like one would a common street dog. Members of Phantom couldn't keep an amused smile form breaking out on their faces.

Jose grit his teeth in righteous fury and kicked Natsu in the head with his other foot as hard as he could, slamming him into what was left of the bar. "Subdue him, but don't kill him. Bring him to me whenever you're done or I tell you to."

As awful as he felt, Natsu couldn't keep his smirk off his face. "Do your…worst…oh god…here comes lunch…"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Erza slammed her hands on the table in rage, shaking it with the force it was hit by. The blonde man on the other end of the lacrima staring in a mixture of contempt and detachment. "What do you mean you won't help Laxus? You're part of Fairy Tail!"

Laxus shrugged. "I didn't start this war and you guys can finish it on your own. It isn't my problem."

Erza's glare was fierce and strong, but it had no effect on Laxus since he didn't fear her in the slightest. Normally, Mira would be the one to use the long range lacrima since it was technically hers, but she couldn't stand Laxus or his attitude, so Erza had called him instead. "Laxus don't do this now! Master is seriously hurt and we need your help. Stop being so damn arrogant and help us for once!" She had lost her temper some time ago.

Laxus merely narrowed his glare a little more. "That's not at all how you ask someone for help. Maybe if you got on your hands and knees and beg I'd help."

The air around Erza turned ice cold, cold enough to make even someone like Gray shiver. Speaking of Gray, he had been silently observing the call for help Erza had ordered with little hope Laxus would come and help, knowing how distant Laxus had been from the guild and its affairs lately. But hearing that last point Laxus had made, Gray had finally decided to step in himself, half to get his help and the other half to keep Erza from exploding.

"Laxus." He started, getting both Erza and Laxus's attention. "You want to fight Natsu Dragneel, right?"

"Gray?" Mira started to ask him, but a hand from Erza telling her to let him continue was enough to stop her for a moment.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Laxus demanded, narrowing his eyes at Gray and wondering where he was going with this.

Gray sighed loudly. "Natsu and his guild are here. Probably all of them are watching us and Phantom. Any moment and we could be fighting both, I'm already suspicious that Dragneel and his guild started all of this. If you come back and help you could get your shot at that rat bastard Natsu."

His declaration silenced the war room, even Laxus was silent at the news.

"You're serious? You all started a war that could involve both of those guilds?" Laxus questioned, an uncharacteristic lack of disdain in his voice.

Gray nodded solemnly, they may not have started the war, but that didn't really matter if it got Laxus to help. "You been saying how you could beat Natsu for a while now. Now's your chance."

Laxus put his hand to his chin in consideration. While he would never admit it out loud, ever since he'd seen his grandfather break down after seeing what Dragneel had become it changed him. He was beginning to hate the idea of being associated with Makarov, but since then, even if he didn't notice it back then, he'd stopped. He still didn't like being associated with his grandfather, but it kept it from getting any worse.

"I'll do it. I've been looking forward to this for a while." Laxus finally relented. Beating Dragneel's face in should make him feel pretty good. Especially after dragging him through the council and tossing him in and rubbing it in their faces that he did what they couldn't do in years.

He may not have been a perfect member of Fairy Tail, but you just weren't a member of Fairy Tail unless you loved giving the council crap.

Gray nodded his head. "When will you be back then?"

Laxus put his hand to his chin for a moment in consideration. "No idea."

With that answer, the communication lacrima cut out. Leaving Gray to answer to the now silent guild.

The first one to voice her opinion was Lucy. "Gray, why didn't you tell me about that when you rescued us?"

Gray sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Because I was more worried about you and Levy and I guess it slipped my mind at the time. But the possibility is there."

Erza's fist clenched painfully tight and one could almost hear the metal gauntlet she was wearing cry out at the force she was exerting. "While I understand your situation. This would have been extremely important information to have as soon as possible."

He swallowed the small lump of fear in his throat and continued explaining himself. "Because I'm unsure. When I met him, it was weird I guess? I didn't notice it at the time, but he said something strange. He might _want_ usto win this war. He said he didn't want to look stupid."

Erza didn't know for certain, but she had a strong suspicion that he wanted them to win this war because she was on Fairy Tail's side. She wondered if the situation was different if he'd still support the side she was on. But why would he have said that to Gray of all people? She'd understand if he'd said that to her considering the arrangement he'd forced her in, but not Gray.

Mira decided to voice her opinion. "The hell did he mean by that? And why do you care if he looked stupid or not?"

"It sounds like he made a bet of some sort." Cana decided to chime in. "Think about it, the council puts Dragon's Keep at nearly Balam Alliance level on the danger scale. Maybe they've got a deal going on in the background. I mean, Oración Seis is only six members; they could know each other."

"No, I doubt it." Mira countered with a surprising amount of confidence. "Keep in mind how much I hate putting _any_ confidence in that ass Sting. But, the brief time that I was friendly really painted a picture of what his stance is towards people is. It's clear that he, at least, doesn't like the idea of working with people he doesn't like."

"But he worked with you on your mission didn't he big sis?" Elfman asked tentatively, she'd made it crystal clear to him in private how much she hated bringing that mission up.

Mira shrugged her shoulders. "I caught him in the act of trashing a bandit guild and robbing everything they had. I think it was more convenient for him to just swallow the pill and work with me than risk losing his haul." She refused to admit that he most likely worked with her because he had a thing for her. If him staring at her ass so obviously was any indication.

"That goes with what he said." Gray said quickly, remembering another detail of the conversation an hour ago. "He did say he wouldn't work with a rat like Jose unless someone forced him to."

That last little bit of information made everything click in Erza's mind. Her eyes narrowed and she turned to Gray. "Did he say anything else about Phantom?"

Gray thought hard since Erza's glare was particularly scary at the moment. "No not really, but he did know where Lucy and Levy were being kept. If that means anything."

"Dammit." Erza swore through gritted teeth. "It looks like we were all right. It's clear that Jose and Natsu have met while this war was going on. So, there is an enormous possibility that what Gray thought was true. We could be dealing with both. They're most likely insurance. If we turn the tables on Phantom and get ready to wipe them out, we could run smack into all five dragons. No doubt they're watching the battle right now."

Before anybody could begin panicking at the thought of both guilds coming after them Gray butted in again. "Erza, that doesn't make sense."

Erza was baffled by the comment. "Of course it makes sense, why else would they be here?"

Instead he shook his head vehemently. "Don't you remember how damn prideful and arrogant Jose is? Why in the hell would he rely on anybody's power besides his own guild's? Relying on the dragon's as insurance would mean admitting that we could possibly beat him. There's no way in hell he would ever admit that or even take a plan into consideration that would mean that."

Even though it meant she was wrong, Erza couldn't bring herself to disagree. The rest of the guild mirrored Gray's belief. "But that leaves the question of why they're here unanswered."

"It's probably because they're bored." A new voice popped up.

"What gives you that impression Loke?" Erza said with a little bit of aggravation. She was beginning to tire of talking about them.

Loke was a man of average height and had spiky orange hair. He wore a green jacket with a bit of fur around the hood and an orange undershirt. He wore several types of rings on his fingers. He also seemed to have this sort of glow to his person.

Loke scratched his cheek and shrugged his shoulders. "It's just a hunch. But I think maybe us being at war may have caught them off guard. We were supposed to fight them next week, so maybe that's why Natsu was around Jose. Maybe getting some answers or something."

Loke may not have weighed in much on most things he was involved in, but it was well known his hunches had a habit of being right. Plus, his reasoning was enough to diffuse the last bit of paranoia that was trying to stick around in the guild.

"With that said." Loke began again, "I think we should move Lucy somewhere, I mean, they really want her parents money, so it might be best to get her off the frontlines."

"What?" Lucy said shocked. "But I can't leave you guys to fight on your own! I want to fight!"

Cana took a small sip from her beer mug. "Nah, I agree with Loke. We should take Lucy to our secondary bunker to keep Phantom guessing."

"But…" Lucy tried to argue, but a hand on her shoulder from Gray stopped her.

"Lucy, it's just for us to keep you safe, please."

Lucy looked down at athe ground and felt guilty again for causing all of this. But she didn't stop them this time.

"All right, I'll take her there and I'll keep her safe." Quickly, Loke grasped Lucy's hand and they took off to Fairy Tail's bunker.

Erza stomped her foot to get everybody's attention. "With that taken care of, we need to get back to planning against Phantom, and if need be, Dragon's Keep." She said, loudly, and almost demandingly, to get things back on track.

"Geez Erza." Mira said sarcastically. "I know you're upset but you don't have to shake the entire guild because of it."

Erza was confused. "But I didn't-"

Something else answered for her. They all heard it now.

A steady thud. _Thump. Thump. Thump._ Growing louder and louder the longer time went on.

It was now very clear that Erza wasn't the one who shook the guild.

They all rushed outside of the guild towards the great body of water behind their guild and could see an enormous monstrosity of a building walking towards them. A giant mobile guild headquarters was just walking through what was nearly an ocean towards their guild like it was nothing.

"It's massive…" The stunned Gray was barely able to mumble. To shook by the sight to speak more.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Mirajane yelled out in fear.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Siegrain was currently filling out the paperwork to finalize the allied attack on Dragon's Keep. He had a great big smile on his face. He couldn't help it, Dragneel had embarrassed him both in public at the bastard's own execution and privately at the tower six years ago, it was finally time to wipe him off the face of the planet and ensure no more loose ends in his plan to resurrect Zeref.

He was a little worried though, the fact Jose and Makarov just could not get along was a big red flag. But he didn't care all that much. If they kept away from eachother's throats until the mission to wipe out Dragon's Keep was finished, then he didn't care if they killed eachother and dismembered the corpses.

He paused going through his paperwork for a moment and took on a bit of a thinking posture. _'No. I need Erza alive. The rest can kill one another.'_

He was jerked from his thoughts when he heard the door open and his underling Ultear walked in. He gave her a courteous nod and went back to work, still with the smile on his face.

"Hello Ultear. I trust you have business if you're here? Sorry, but if not I do have actual work to do for once." He said with a formal tone, but one could hear the joy he was feeling in it.

Ultear sighed loudly. "Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail are in a guild war."

Siegrain paused at that. His smile slowly vanished and a tight frown etched its way onto his countenance. He raised his head slowly and his jaw slowly clenched. "Could you please say that again Ultear? I don't think I heard you correctly." His voice was neutral, but his rising fury was almost able to be tasted.

"Like I said, Jose started a guild war with Fairy Tail. I kept close eye on them like you suggested and that's what eventually happened." Ultear said with a tiny bit of mirth. Though on the outside, she was visibly upset to play along with Siegrain's perception of working under him.

Siegrain's facial expression didn't technically change, but his jaw clenched plenty tight enough to shatter stone and his fist crushed the pencil in his hand to splinters. "Why?" There was a tidal wave of rage just ready to burst forth like a storm.

Ultear looked away for a moment and sat down, obviously moving from being in front of him purposefully. She had an unsure expression on her face that didn't belong at all. "…do you really want to know?"

Siegrain felt his teeth begin to shatter. "Just tell me." It was amazing he could speak through teeth _that_ clenched.

Ultear hesitated for only a bit longer. "I spotted Dragneel leaving Phantom Lord's guild hall shortly before the war started. He had hidden his features with transformation magic, but I could recognize his magic from anywhere." She kept the fact that Natsu burned his fist into her stomach and that's why she would always recognize his magic a secret.

It was silent for a moment as the last bit of information processed in Siegrain's brain.

Methodically, almost robotically, Siegrain rose from his chair and braced his hands against the desk and took a large breath in.

"So, you mean to tell me, Dragneel, that god damned mongrel of a human being, started the long building guild war between Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail. Am I correct in this assumption?" Siegrain was the picture-perfect form of self-control right then.

Ultear could feel something wrong in the air and she liked it. "Yes, yes you are."

Siegrain nodded his head painfully slow. Removing his hands from the desk and leaving imprints of his hands in the finely textured wood. Leaving them hanging uselessly at his sides. "So, you mean to tell me, that we are going to completely lose one of the guilds from the mission next week? The one I've been spending weeks preparing for and years waiting for?"

Ultear swallowed a lump in her throat that she was angry for being there. "Yes."

He breathed a long and agonizingly slow breath out of his mouth. "So, one of the guilds, no matter the winner, is going to pull out of this mission to recover from the guild war and we can't at all stop them because they're completely in their right? Am I correct in _that_ assumption?"

Ultear could feel something building massively behind his façade of calmness. She wasn't sure if she wanted to see exactly what though. "Most likely, yes they will. Fairy Tail and Phantom both have reputations to go overboard. Fairy Tail more so though."

Siegrain just stayed quiet before lifting his arm at head height. It teetered there for a few minutes before he slowly brought it back to his side and sat down roughly. "So, we lost the two strongest guilds in this stupid mission. Am I correct Ultear?"

She was taken aback at the statement or rather the statements lack of any anger. He just sounded defeated, deflated. "Yes. I'm sorry about that."

He sighed and all his anger left with it. He brought a hand up to his face limply and rubbed the bridge of his nose to alleviate his brand-new headache, his eyes shut and accepting his defeat. "One last thing Ultear, when you saw Dragneel leaving Phantom, was he laughing?"

She genuinely felt bad for Jellal on the other end of Siegrain. Even without her influence, Jellal had grown to utterly despise Natsu. Something she thought was extremely convenient. But his last question confused her. Why was it important if he was laughing?

"Pardon?"

Suddenly, Siegrain kicked his desk through the wall, leaped up from his chair, grasped Ultear by the collar, and lifted her up to his face roughly. Scattering his papers, belongings, splinters, and official documents all over the floor. "WAS HE LAUGHING?" He exploded in her face, his body trembling in rage.

Ultear had not seen his explosion coming at all. And had nearly blew a hole in his chest from sheer reflex alone. Only her extreme dedication kept her from reacting. Even though she knew for a _fact_ she was leagues above Siegrain, she still had a tremble in her voice. "I don't know. I wasn't close enough."

He was still in her face after she'd given her answer, but his words were spiteful enough to kill. His eyes even more. "I'm going to mount his head on a kami forsaken pike."

He roughly let go of Ultear's collar and stormed out of his office, she had no idea where he was going and was not inclined to find out. She'd learned a valuable lesson today, bringing up this day to Jellal in person may have been a sure-fire way to get her ass beaten.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Oh my god I'm so _bored!_ " Wendy moaned from the outskirts of Magnolia. They had been there for at least two hours and literally nothing had happened. They'd all gotten there after Fairy Tail and none of the boring bastards had done _anything_ interesting.

"Natsu told us Phantom wasn't done with them and that there would be more action. So, where the fuck are they!? And for that matter, where the fuck is NATSU?!" Wendy was visibly furious, on top of audibly enraged. The other dragons were a bit iffy on being near her. But she seemed more inclined to take out her aggression on Sting's testicles instead of them at the moment.

Speaking of him, he was currently crying in pain a couple of feet behind the rest of them.

"Well." Gajeel began warily. "He might have just outright started a fight with Jose. Maybe he wanted us a good distance away in case it got particularly nasty."

Rogue turned to Gajeel with a curious gaze. "Why would he need to do that? Natsu is plenty powerful enough defeat Jose, isn't he? He always has _that_ if he gets pushed too far."

Gajeel would have smacked Rogue upside the head but instead snapped his fingers. "You weren't around the last time Natsu got serious, were you?"

Rogue was confused. He'd been there for a long time, but admittedly not as long as Wendy and Gajeel had. "No, I guess not. What was so important that I missed?"

Wendy bitterly answered him. "He rewrote the wizard saint list. By killing two of them at once."

"Keep in mind." Gajeel added quickly. "We weren't all that big and well known yet, though Natsu fixed that really fucking quick when those idiots jumped us and tried to take us in, we may not have been big but we had a decent bounty."

Sting had managed to stagger to his feet and leaned heavily on Rogue's shoulder to listen. Though Rogue moved quickly and ignored Sting's pained groan as he lost his balance and crashed into the ground. "Two wizard saints jumped you?"

Gajeel nodded and Wendy got up and stood next to him and continued for him, more interested in this conversation than watching a boring guild. "I don't remember much of what happened and neither does Gajeel. But we do know that Natsu nearly had his arm torn off, and we got hurt pretty badly from the saints and Natsu's own crazy ass attacks."

Rogue put a hand to his chin in thought. "So Natsu was forced to use _that_ and he still nearly lost? And his attacks were so strong that they hurt you guys?"

Gajeel made a noise of disagreement. "Not really, keep in mind, Natsu was a lot weaker before he met you two and he fought both wizard saint number nine and eight. And in his own words. 'I can barely fucking control that stupid thing' so he didn't use _that_ , but he did use his trump card. I think."

At this point, Sting had mostly recuperated himself and decided to join in the conversation. "I knew Natsu killed two saints. But I never heard the story, guess I never really cared. But I thought he could handle up to Makarov confidently when it came to the saints? Isn't that old man like number five or something?"

At this point, Wendy and Gajeel looked at one another before answering. "That was just before he met you guys, he disappeared for four months after that battle and came back the strength he's at now. I don't know his limit anymore and I doubt he does either."

"He really messed himself up that day. He told me in private one day that he felt himself die at one point. He's not sure what made him get up and use _that_ again. He said he should be dead." Wendy admitted, she hated bringing that up. Natsu had always been invincible to her and she hated seeing him hurt especially when he'd been so damaged for they're sakes.

"Damn." Sting said with a surprise. "I really want him to go all out cause I really want to fucking see it."

"It's really something." Gajeel admitted. "Wendy was mostly unconscious, but I remember a couple of things he did that was crazy before a big ass explosion knocked me out cold. His power goes through the roof. It's frightening and I don't know why _that_ makes him so damn strong."

Rogue was scratching his chin in thought. "Do you think any of the saints could challenge Natsu if he was pushed to his absolute limit?"

Gajeel shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. Like I said, Natsu doesn't even know his own limit. How the hell would I know?"

"It was just a question you metal faced prick." Sting defended his friend. His last mistake.

Gajeel glared hatefully towards Sting, whom had just realized his fatal mistake. "Wait no please don't." Sting bargained fearfully.

Gajeel snapped his fingers and like lightning, Wendy kicked Sting square in the dragon slayers. Though, for once, she took it easy and only kicked hard enough to shatter wood, instead of stone.

"Why?" he cried form the ground, Rogue unable to keep his cool demeanor any longer, broke out into laughter. Gajeel followed shortly after. Wendy didn't laugh because it was just a habit at this point.

Wendy suddenly made everybody stop laughing. "Hey, I just realized. Next week we're fighting all these guilds, right?"

Gajeel stopped laughing at Sting long enough to make a response. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, do you think they're gonna still do it? These two are the strongest guilds they can throw at us, right? What happens if they wipe eachother out? From their perspective, what if Natsu was taken out in a fight? Without his support, we could be in a huge jam. So, what'll the council do?" Wendy made a good point and Gajeel and Rogue managed to stop laughing at Sting to think about her statement.

What _would_ the council do since Fairy Tail and Phantom probably wouldn't fight next week? Just go along with some unremarkable guilds and two saints? Did they think they were that weak?

Sting groaned from his spot on the ground and just admitted defeat and stayed on his back on the ground. "They might still do it, the fact two saints will be on the mission is probably enough insurance with support to keep us occupied. To the council, it seems more like beating Natsu is the goal and they don't care what happens to us."

Gajeel glared at the downed Sting. "Sting that's…actually a good point."

Sting grinned from the floor. "I know. Everybody seems to underestimate us because Natsu's strength overshadows us. It'll be great to tear through all the fodder they throw at us just to beat the hell out of two saints. Gotta remind Natsu to take it easy so we can have fun too."

Wendy growled from her spot. "Yeah but Siegrain already beat you two. And us."

Sting flippantly ignored that. "Whatever, he got the best of you guys once. Beating me and Rogue is a completely different story than beating you two. I mean come on. I know you guys are way stronger than you let on and you two are way stronger than us. Plus, if that ain't enough, we'll have a week to train to catch up to that bastard. Remember, Natsu said dragons never lose, dragons only lose when they die."

Wendy and Gajeel looked towards one another before she grinned evilly. "Your right Sting. Beating you guys is no real big achievement."

Sting and Rogue both glared and spoke in unison, pride shattered. "Oi."

Wendy crouched down to get closer to Sting's face. "But I appreciate the sentiment." There was a genuine thankful smile on her face that made Sting forget about how many times throughout his life Wendy had kicked him full steam in the balls.

He smirked back at her and ruffled her hair awkwardly from his spot on the ground. "Anytime squirt."

Wendy didn't open her eyes but her mouth clenched tight. She roughly grabbed a handful of dirt and smeared it in Sting's face. Pressing a hand to his chest so he couldn't escape and she could continue to smear dirt in his face. Laughing evilly the entre time. Wendy really could teach the most evil dominatrix a thing or two.

Rogue shook his head in amusement. He counted his blessings every day since he wasn't the one chosen to be the guild bitch all those years ago. But hell, Sting seemed to enjoy it so whatever.

The four of them suddenly stopped moving when they heard an incredibly soft _thump._

Wendy stopped messing with Sting and Sting got up and brushed the dirt off his face and stared out towards the ocean.

"That thing…" Gajeel started, honestly too surprised for his own good.

"Woah. I guess Natsu was right, Phantom isn't done with Fairy Tail." Rogue said slowly, if Fairy Tail had even the smallest hope, it was thoroughly trashed.

"Holy shit it's fucking huge!" Wendy explained in her usual elegance.

"This is gonna be good. Totally worth two hours. Fairy Tail is fucked with a capital f." Sting said in excitement, in truth, this coming bloodbath was more than worth two hours of waiting.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

It finally stopped its intimidating stomping towards the Fairy Tail guildhall. But because it stopped moving didn't mean that it was finished instilling fear whatsoever. Slowly, a wall on the front of the mobile guild receded to reveal a large cannon sitting comfortably in a secret hole.

"Oh no…" Erza happened to know what was most likely nestled in Phantom's crazy attacking base. "Is that-"

" _Fairy Tail."_ To their surprise, Jose's voice was audible to them, despite being nowhere in sight.

" _It's finally time to show you the true difference in our powers. I will use the Jupiter Cannon to show you true despair the likes of which you have never seen."_

"Everybody get out of the way! That cannon could destroy part of the city!" Erza started spitting out orders in a panic, but nobody could really listen to her because of their own panicked states.

" _And to the dragons, out their watching this battle. Keep in mind that after Fairy Tail is no more, you are next. Enjoy this demonstration of our power you mongrels. FIRE!"_

"Dammit!" Erza shouted in frustration, the dragons really _were_ all here, she'd kept quiet and hoped silently that only Natsu was here but that was blown out the window. But she ignored them as she rushed to the edge of the waters and became enveloped in the glow of bright light for a moment. Coming out of it enveloped in the most durable suit of magic armor she had, the Adamantine Armor.

In contrast to her other armors, this one hid her figure in lavish and powerfully enchanted armor made purely for defense. It came with two enormous half shields on her arms she could bring together to make an impenetrable wall. It was made to unstoppable and impenetrable and she hoped it was up to the task.

"Erza what the hell are you doing?!" Gray shouted in panic, he knew exactly what that armor was for. She couldn't be planning to block the Jupiter Cannon on her own could she?

She didn't respond, but rather brought her arms together and made the shield complete. The Jupiter Cannon's barrel was glowing darkly and was just about to fire. She managed to bring her defenses up just as the cannon fired.

"ERZA!" Gray tried to stop her or help or something, but Mira held him back with everything she had and watched in terror as Erza stood up to the Jupiter Cannon all on her own.

She grit her teeth and dug in her heels as the blast slammed into her magic circle . The force behind it was _enormous_. Greater than any attack she had ever received. The power of the blast was slowly pushing her backwards, but she refused to break. She channeled even more of her magic and even more of her spirit into stopping Jupiter.

"Come on Erza…" Cana mumbled to herself, watching with baited breath as the strongest women she knew risked everything.

Elfman watched with grit teeth, he'd never seen this kind of herculean effort from Erza before. Though he knew she was incredible, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Erza you better not die." Mira said lowly, she'd be furious if Erza threw her life away and she lost her rival because of this.

Her armor was groaning and crying under the stress of blocking Jupiter. She herself was beginning to cry at the unbelievable strength behind the blast. But she _refused_ to die here. She _refused_ to let the guild be destroyed. And she _refused_ to let this despicable blast hurt even one of her friends. So she pushed on, more magic swelled towards the circle and its glow increased as the blast continued to pressure it.

She wasn't sure where it came from, but she knew she needed it. There was far too much at risk for her to fail and she continued to push magic into her defense. The circle glowed brighter than before and for once, Erza managed to take a step forward and regain some ground Jupiter had taken from her rather than losing anymore.

The ground cracked under the force her legs used to take each step closer to Phantom and farther away from Fairy Tail. And just as she reached the edge, her armor began to crack. Her magic circle began to lose its powerful luminescence and her fear skyrocketed. Jupiter immediately took the ground Erza had forcibly taken back and then some; pushing her and her armor to its limit.

' _I have not been getting stronger and stronger only to fall here! I refuse! I will not leave them alone to deal with the likes of Jellal and the dragons! I will not fall!'_ She repeated the mantra again and again in her head, and just like she hoped would happen. She stopped losing ground to Jupiter, but this time, this time it was different.

This time there was simply nothing left to defend against, with one last push. She had managed to keep herself grounded and stopped the blast of Jupiter in its tracks.

She panted heavily and felt her armor shatter around her, leaving her in her normal white blouse and blue skirt. She stared unblinkingly towards the smoking cannon Jupiter came from with shock written all over her face.

"She did it!"

Fairy Tail exploded. Their cheers of triumph were only trounced by the amount of smug on their faces. Erza herself grinned cockily and wiped a bit of debris from her face and stared out towards Phantom. She was suddenly attacked from her side as Gray hugged her fiercely, ecstatic she all right.

"Of course I'm fine, I'm tired, but that isn't gonna stop me." Erza said with a grin. Betraying how exhausted she actually was to keep morale up.

"Erza there is no way you are at full strength right now after stopping that thing." Mirajane said from behind her, while sarcastic she had a satisfied smile on her face seeing Erza was alright.

Erza took the worried words as a challenge. "To be honest Mira, I would rather block that thing one hundred more times then get stuck fighting Natsu again. That battle with him woke me up and showed me I needed to get stronger no matter what."

Gray was a bit worried that Jupiter had rattled her brains. "Erza what the hell are you saying? You mean fighting Natsu was harder than blocking Jupiter?"

"Yes it was. I blocked Jupiter successfully, but I lost to Natsu." Erza explained her reasoning, she surprised herself a little today. At this rate, she would soon be strong enough to defeat both Natsu and Jellal.

Gray opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Everything that came out of her mouth was true. So he just shook his head with a stupid smile on his face.

Their celebration was cut short by a furious Jose.

" _Celebrate all you want you pathetic Fairies."_

"Oh I'm sorry Jose." Mirajane said with a laugh. "I couldn't hear you over your _blocked cannon._ "

Jose's next line seemed delayed a little bit and more than a little forced. _"It's no matter if you blocked the Jupiter Cannon once. We will simply fire it again. Begin charging sequence! You have fifteen minutes left to live Fairies. Enjoy them."_

The raucous cheers stopped almost immediately at that.

Erza swallowed nervously. "I can't block another one."

Everybody started to panic a little before Gray had a perfect idea. "Mira, you can fly with your **Satan Soul**. You could fly to the guild and we could disable the weapon."

Mirajane's eyes lit up at the idea. It was perfect, but she couldn't alleviate her nervousness with such an important task being burdened by her shoulder's alone. "But I'm not sure If I could do it alone and I can't carry someone else fly that far."

Gray smirked and put his hands together. "Who the hell would make you go alone? **Ice Make: Floor!** " In a flash, a bridge made completely of ice bridged the walking automaton of death and the Fairy Tail guild together. With it leading straight to the barrel of the weapon.

"No way in hell would I send you in there alone." Gray finished with a fierce look.

Mirajane smiled ear to ear in excitement before turning to Erza. "We'll handle the cannon. You stay here and recover your magic a little Erza. Who knows, maybe you _can_ block another one."

Erza nodded her head. "I will do what I must. We're counting on you guys."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"AHAHAHAHAHA! You talked that thing up for like five minutes! And Scarlet fucking blocked it on her own! AHAHAHAHAHAH!" Natsu was doing his best impression of holding his gut in laughter. An impressive feat considering he was bound damn well. For once, he couldn't break his bonds on his own. Unless he did something _really_ fucking stupid, which he was considering because why not?

Jose would not be lying if he said he was more than surprised that the Jupiter Cannon was blocked. And blocked so damn thoroughly on top of it. But he would say that Natsu Dragneel was fucking infuriating.

"Would you shut him up?" Jose growled out. He'd invited (dragged kicking and screaming) Natsu to watch Fairy Tail get crushed. Turns out that isn't what happened.

"AHAHAHAHA-oww. Hit me again you little blond bitch. See what I'll do to your face afterwards." Natsu was bloody and bruised, but for some damn reason, he just seemed more terrifying soaked in his own blood. They had him in magic restraining chains and then threw more on him on top of those just to be safe. Even Jose, in all his arrogance, wasn't dumb enough to slap a couple of cuffs on his wrists and call him restrained. So, instead, he had Natsu's arms completely shoved inside an iron box filled with smaller cuffs that kept his arms ram rod straight and took all of his leverage away.

It didn't matter how damn strong Natsu was physically, with bad leverage he was going _nowhere_.

"Hit him again bro. He's obviously bluffing." Thor said with a noticeable smirk on his face. He knew his brother really disliked being in charge of Natsu and he found it utterly hilarious.

"Shut up. The both of you. Not just you Thor." Odin replied upset. He cracked Natsu again in the side of the temple and it managed to make him shut up for a few moments. Blows to the temple tended to do that.

Thor feigned ignorance. "Me? What did I do?" He enjoyed himself immensely, but if that punk Dragneel tore open his brother's hand again he was going to yank out his fucking teeth.

For just a moment, Natsu was silent and stared hard at Jose. "You know, if you release me right now. I won't kill everybody in this guild, but if you don't and the dragons figure out I'm here oh boy. You and your entire guild are gonna get gutted."

"Your threats are meaningless Dragneel. A man in your state is weak and pathetic, any threat from you is about as effective as a threat from a toddler." Jose was aggravated at his failure, he had underestimated Fairy Tail greatly, that much was obvious. But he didn't need to hear a damn thing out of Natsu's aggravating mouth.

"Also unlike the council, I am not stupid enough to let you live any longer than necessary. I will do you in the same way I will kill Makarov. I will destroy everything you hold dear and when you are reveling in despair. Then, and only then will I kill you."

Surprisingly fast, Natsu was on his feet and in front of Jose before anybody could stop him. "You lay one finger on them and I'll make you beg for me to kill you. I will make every day you live fucking agony Jose. Do not test my limits. No one is alive who has."

Jose simply glared angrily at him and placed a single hand on his stomach. "As I said, your threats are meaningless." As soon as he was done speaking, a corrupt feeling permeated through Natsu's body and snaked its way up to his chest and got even more intense. His chest was contracting and he started having trouble breathing.

"I would like you to remember this in your few moments you have left to live today. I've got a fair bit of my magic in your system right now. Awful, isn't it?" Jose taunted the man with a smile on his face, a dark and twisted smile that showed the evil in Jose's heart.

Natsu continued fighting to breathe, but he laughed, albeit with great difficulty. "I can't help laughing, you're such a twisted fuck that we could have been great friends if you wouldn't have been stupid enough to challenge me."

Jose couldn't help but laugh himself. "And if you weren't such an annoying fly then I would have to agree. Say goodbye to your lung."

Natsu looked quizzically at Jose before a purple tendril of magic suddenly burst forth from Jose's arm and tunneled through his chest and out his back. Making a great big hole on its exit and showering the people behind him in his blood.

Jose slowly stepped back and the tendril violently tore itself out of Natsu's chest cavity and coiled around Jose, almost protectively. Natsu was only able to glance down to the hole in his chest for a few brief moments before collapsing to the ground.

"Take him to the dungeon, I will finish with him later and give him a good torture session on top of it. He's one of those people that really deserve it. A good stress relief is worth millions in Jewels. Almost as much as that Heartfilia fortune."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Holy shit that was fucking rad." Sting said in excitement. "This is what Natsu meant when he said Fairy Tail could be dangerous. Haha! This is gonna be great I want to fight them right now!"

Wendy mirrored his excitement with a much more predatory grin. "I can't wait either. I don't know who it was, but I want whoever blocked the Jupiter Cannon."

"Do you think anybody else could block the Jupiter in their guild Gajeel?" Rogue asked, a glint in his eye that showed his excitement was just as great as the others.

"Gi hi hi." Gajeel laughed slowly. "I definitely hope more of them are in the guild. I would kill for a chance to fight someone like that."

Sting stared at Gajeel weirdly. "I've seen you kill for a sandwich."

Gajeel shrugged. "The principle is the same."

"Okay seriously, was anybody else creeped out how Jose called us out?" Wendy said after the excitement of watching the Jupiter Cannon wore off.

They all sent looks back and forth to eachother. "No not really, I find it cute that he called us out and Fairy Tail shut him right up for us. I'd bet money that Natsu would be laughing his ass off right now…" Sting began with a jovial glee to his voice before it steadily grew into something more serious.

"Wait a fucking minute…" Sting said growing more and more visibly upset with each passing moment.

"What's wrong now?" Gajeel said aggravated.

"Natsu said he was gonna stick around to see if Jose was gonna pull any weird stunts. I'd bet my life savings he got himself fucking captured because that thing moves and he got sick."

They all glanced back and forth at one another as the possibility Natsu was in a dungeon getting his ass beaten became more and more of a possibility.

Gajeel and Wendy loudly groaned. "Again? Fucking again? We broke him out like two months ago! Why the hell does he keep getting captured? I mean seriously? Seriously?!" Wendy was the star of that rant, but all of a sudden Rogue's eye lit up with an idea.

"Wait, if Natsu's currently being tortured by Phantom, or at least we think he is, then does that mean we can get involved now?" Rogue's statement made Wendy's ranting stop in its tracks.

They all looked back and forth and they became more and more excited as it dawned on them. "Yes it does! Let's go fucking party with our new punching bags! They even made us a bridge! Wendy, cast Troia!" Sting quickly said in excitement.

Wendy grinned evilly from ear to ear. **"Troia!"**

Sting shouted out in happiness and Turned before going into a full sprint towards the Phantom Hall, every one of them whooping and cheering that they finally got to do something other than fucking watch. Hard to tell they were all murderers.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Jose watched through the lacrima with a furious scowl as two fairy mages made their way towards his guild. But he laughed it off eventually. "Those stupid flies are coming in here all on their own to disable my Jupiter Cannon. Ha! What a farce!"

He paused for a moment and stared at the lacrima vision again with a pursed lip. Erza Scarlet blocked Jupiter Cannon all on her own, he did not like the fact she looked fully capable of blocking a second one, no matter how capable she was in reality, and felt a need to do something about it. It also wouldn't hurt to dole out some punishment to the other fairies for their gall they all had to survive in the first place.

He smirked to himself as his shades began to take shape and laughed as loudly as he could. Again, he couldn't help himself. He'd been waiting so damn long for this day and it was finally here and he could enjoy himself. He couldn't wait to see the despair on Makarov's face when he was done with his guild.

Suddenly, his laughing stopped and he took another look towards the lacrima and frowned.

"I didn't want to deal with this yet."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Erza's fist clenched in worry. Gray and Mira took off to the Jupiter Cannon almost five minutes ago and didn't seem any closer to disabling the thing. She was desperate to run in and help them, but if Jupiter managed to fire again, she had to be there to block it the best she could. She sighed and glanced down at her clenched fist in thought.

She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she shouldn't have been able to block the Jupiter Cannon so well. Her success honestly worried her, but it wasn't a bad kind of worry. But it did make her wonder.

' _Where did this strength come from?'_ She thought, almost bitterly. _'I'm thankful for it, but I wasn't this strong until…'_

She racked her brain, any peculiar instances that she couldn't remember involving her magic. Anything she'd done recently. Her recent training regime, which she had doubled up on in preparation for the mission next week against Dragon's Keep, would have made her stronger yes, but not this much.

' _Was it any past battle that pushed me too far? Could it have been how close I was to death at Natsu's hands?'_ It was kind of a morbid thought, but it made enough sense. Her battle against Natsu did push her to her absolute limit and beyond.

She shook her head to clear it from those pointless thoughts. _'No, it doesn't matter how I got as powerful as I have. As long as I can use it to protect Fairy Tail, that is all that matters. And If Natsu inadvertently gave me this strength then so be it. I will use it crush both him and protect Fairy Tail.'_

"What the hell are those things?"

The sudden cry jerked her mind out of its train of thought and brought it back the real world.

One where it greeted her, Cana, Elfman, and the rest of Fairy Tail to ghostly apparitions zooming towards them at a frighteningly rapid pace.

"Those are Jose's shades! He sending them after us!"

"Dammit!"

* * *

 **Omake: Sting the Walking Disaster I**

 _Time: One week after Sting and Rogue joined Dragon's Keep. Approximately six years before the story takes place._

The cyclops collapsed to the ground with a mighty crash. It's body thoroughly decimated from the combination of lost magics thrown at it in perfect sync. Chunks of skin severed and bones shattered, it's head…er…stump now, crushed beneath the combined force of the two's unison raid and scattering it's insides all over the cave walls.

A thirteen-year-old Sting Eucliffe smirked cockily, his new best friend Rogue Cheney, also a teen, beside him with a rather excited leer in his eyes though steadily dying now that the threat was over. "So." Sting began with the confident tone in his voice sounding adorable with the voice crack. "We finished the extermination mission. How did we do?"

Rogue simply breathed the excitement out of his body and turned expectantly towards their new master as he stared at them with a look more fitting on an exam proctor's face than his. Natsu Dragneel was also in his teens, but had already demonstrated he was _far_ above the other two's level. So, they took orders from someone barely older without a second thought.

"Well." Natsu began, scratching his cheek and hopping down of the perch he'd watched the battle from. "Let's see, you two showed nearly flawless teamwork despite meeting one another a week ago, chose the toughest mission I would throw at you, _before_ I said what any of them were." He paused a little bit to let the two boys' egos swell just a tad.

"And to top it all off, neither one of you have a scratch on you. So, you just barely pass." Natsu said bluntly, shocking the other two immensely.

"What?! Why?!" Sting nearly squeaked/yelled out at his new guild master. The fact that he passed with anything _less_ than flying colors was completely unacceptable. He'd worked his ass off for this dammit!

"I agree with him, you said yourself that we performed almost flawlessly." Rogue defended his partner, more elegantly but just as passionate.

Natsu simply stared at them before shaking his head sadly. "Obviously because you guys did just that. Perform. You weren't entertaining to anybody except boring ass old people." He stopped for a moment to bring his hands out in front of him and flick both boys in the forehead. Before they could protest he interrupted them.

"Rule number one to being a member of Dragon's Keep, you have to be a _colossal_ douchebag to your opponents. The whole nine yards, shit-talking, your mama jokes, anything to get the enemy so riled up they charge you first. Dragon's don't start fights, they _end_ them." He explained this with a completely straight face "Except when the mission calls for it, or you're just upset. Whatever, the point is that dragons either end the fight or start them and then end them."

Just as Sting and Rogue began to understand what he was saying he continued. "Rule number two. You must be visibly infuriating to look at. Not all the time, but when you want somebody to want to break your fucking jaw because they caught you giving them the finger. You get them so riled up that they want to tear your head off instead." Though the rules sounded the same, one was applying to words said and the other was body actions and language so they were totally different.

Sting and Rogue had already accepted his words of wisdom and pulled notebooks out of nowhere and began furiously writing down the words that spilled out of his mouth.

Natsu glared at them as they wrote down. "Rule number three." He started before grabbing both notebooks and burning them to ashes. "Only bitches write stuff down. And Wendy, Wendy can write stuff down."

Sting used this opportunity to use his newfound sage wisdom. "So does that mean Wendy is a bitch?" He may not have met Wendy yet, but with such a girly name he had to take a shot.

"Asking rude and stupid fucking questions like that Sting is exactly the kind of attitude I want from you. Your grade just went from a D- to a C-." Natsu proudly clapped Sting on the back like a proud father would. Sting himself started choking up.

"Gay." Rogue chimed in.

Still staring proudly at Sting, Natsu pointed his index finger towards Rogue. "Short and simple, but to easy. D- to a D."

"Aww." Rogue groaned in defeat, this was harder than Sting made it look.

"All right now, enough extra credit, it's time for you guys to meet Wendy and Gajeel. Your new future family and also arch nemesis. Oh and just so you know, both of them were A+ from the second I met them a year ago."

The meeting went smoothly enough. Gajeel terrified the fuck out of them with all of his piercings before he tripped on his new iron boots that were way too heavy and ate shit. Sting and Rogue were immediately no longer intimidated.

"Wait wait wait. Wendy's a girl?" Sting exclaimed in shock, he thought Wendy was just one of those really buff dudes that had a girly name for giggles and not an actual girl.

Especially not an eight-year-old one.

"Your damn right she is. And she's also your superior, so you better listen." Natsu said with authority that was ruined by the _massive_ shit eating grin on his face.

"That's wight! Aww shit! I did it agaiwn." Wendy said through a small lisp before breaking out into more swearing after realizing she lisped again.

Rogue was completely trusting of Natsu's word by this point, one demonstration of the power difference himself and Natsu was all he needed. If Natsu said they were weaker than an ant, then they were.

"Bullshit! I'll kick this little girl's ass right now!" Sting yelled angrily, he'd busted his ass to get as strong as he was, he'd killed a dragon for kami's sake he wasn't gonna let a little girl-

And that was as far as his thought process got before an ungodly, inhuman pain surged up from his testicles.

"And there is his first nutcheck." Natsu said sadly, with Gajeel laughing loudly and Rogue visibly shaking in terror at the sight of Wendy crushing the groveling Sting's head the moment he'd hit the ground with her foot.

"Sway my name!" Wendy demanded, forgetting about her minor lisp in her unstoppable rage.

"W-WENDY!" Sting screamed out, his voice several octaves higher.

After several more demands Wendy stormed off to cool down and left Sting with a disappointed master, the laughing dragon, and one mentally traumatized for life friend.

Natsu knelt to the seizing Sting's level and began speaking to him. "I forgot to mention that Wendy has the undisputed most powerful spell in existence. **The Instant Series: Nutcheck**."

Sting was incapable of speaking as his dragon slayers nearly tore themselves from his body to escape the pain.

Natsu actually visibly got nervous as he began to explain. "Two things, one, that technique isn't for shits and giggles. I swear to god it's actually instant because even I can't see her move when she does it. And two, Wendy can do healing magic and that means she can fuck with your nervous system if she's pissed enough. So while a normal nutcheck usually lasts anywhere from a couple minutes at the most intense, she can make it go on forever."

Sting managed to choke a few words out of his mouth. "Why…the…hell…did…you…let…a…monster…like…her…in…here…?"

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Duh, because having an eight-year-old nutcracker walking around is the coolest shit ever."

Just as his consciousness was beginning to fade away he was able to utter a last sentence.

"That…is…pretty…fucking…cool…..."

 _Present Time: Poker Table With All Five Dragons_

"Hey remember when Sting first came here and Wendy put him on his ass?" Gajeel said suddenly, fearing Sting's hand was actually going to win.

"God dammit." Sting swore under his breath before tossing his cards on the table and walking away.

Once he'd left the room and the subsequent laughter died down one could faintly hear a steady banging on the walls.

"Works every time." Gajeel said through a crooked as fuck smile before tossing Sting's cards up and revealing Sting was going to win the hand.

Wendy just smiled evilly and hummed a little tune to herself and tried to keep herself from bursting into a fit of laughter while swiping Gajeel's errant stack of chips.

Rogue sighed in actual sympathy for his friend. But did nothing else because that rat bastard had put him out. "At least he's good at cards."

"You are never going to let him live that down." Natsu said without an ounce of sympathy in his voice. Sting was about to bluff the shit out of him and put him out too.

"Gonna carve it on his tombstone. Fuck, I'll kill him before I let him outlive me just so I can." Gajeel said completely seriously and without an ounce of mercy.

Lisanna may have been the only one with an actual heart for the poor butt of everyone's joke named Sting. "Should I go check on him?"

Natsu waved her off and returned to the game. "Nah, once the banging stops then you can check on him... Dammit, Gajeel you can't shuffle worth a fuck."

It would later be revealed that Sting was violently smashing his head against the wall in a desperate attempt to knock himself out, though sadly, he never succeeded. So he eventually came back with a giant red gash on his forehead and preceded to get laughed at again.

* * *

 **A/N: And there we go, the chapter and omake out for your enjoyment. I also ended it on a fairly obvious cliffhanger with Jose not alluding to what he didn't want to deal with yet. Mainly because I'm a cunt.**

 **Hope you enjoyed and be prepared, I will increase the upload schedule. I promise this time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sup, I'm back for real this time. Who would of thought huh? Anyway, nothing special this time, just hope you all enjoy. Please leave a review if you did. That'd be mighty appreciated.**

* * *

Totomaru was a bit upset honestly. Why? Oh, that was easy.

First off, guarding the power source of the Jupiter cannon was a stupid job. But he did understand the importance of it; but that didn't make the job any less dumb because in his mind, it was just acknowledging Fairy Tail was powerful enough to get anywhere near it. Which they weren't.

Secondly, even if anyone did reach it, what were they going to do? Break it? Fat chance.

Thirdly, Why the fuck was he fighting that little ice make wizard Gray Fullbuster and The Demon Mirajane at the same time? This was utter nonsense, either one on their own he could handle but both was-

His thought was cut off by having to avoid the cascade of ice stalactites erupting from the ground that nearly skewered him, for the umpteenth fucking time, and then nearly getting his face torn off by Mirajane's claws. His sword swipe coming mere inches from taking her head off. But it might as well have been in a different postal code for all the good it did.

That stupid tail made her ridiculously agile with her having it jammed into the ground and using it like a slingshot.

He'd had barely a moment to breathe before the two were on him again. They only had around ten minutes before Jupiter fired again, and he was already nearly taken out three damn times in five minutes.

His first near defeat was when The Demon nearly blew his damn head off. The only reason he didn't lose his brainbox was because her explosions were still technically flames he could control with magic, even if it was technically shadow magic, it still had flame parts he could manipulate. So, he had it redirect and blow up in her own face instead. He'd laughed and laughed before he was shot in the abdomen by what he thought was an ice cannon. Fucking seriously? He could make actual functioning cannons? That was as cool as it was dumb.

The second was after the second time he'd redirected Mirajane's explosions back at her, they didn't know what was going on yet and an extremely dull stalactite burst from the ground and gave him the most vicious uppercut of his life. Even after he'd recovered it was only through instinct that he avoided the ice make wizards blade of ice. But he still didn't escape without a haircut and a fierce kick from the ice make wizard.

The, hopefully, last time he nearly got defeated was after a full tackle by the ice mage after a brief sword exchange. He was more skilled with a sword than Totomaru had expected and was brought to the floor and he actually got mounted. His enemy, instead of raining down blows, started trying to trap him in ice. He'd only gotten out of it by a fierce enough headbutt dazing the ice mage long enough for Totomaru to engulf the man in flames and nearly breaking his arm to bust out of the ice. And what reward did he get for all his troubles? He finally got caught with an evil explosion from Mirajane to his face. Boy did that hurt, another one of those and he was toast.

Now he was starting to worry if he could hold out for the whole ten minutes. He wasn't dumb, both of them were both going all out and he was getting tired. It stopped being when he'd win and became how long before he'd lose. They'd win for sure if he held out, so that's all he had to do. He just hoped they wouldn't do any suicide tactics, though he wouldn't put it below them. Fairy Tail was just as insane, if not more, than they were.

"I'm fed up with this."

Totomaru heard Mirajane mention something to Gray and motioned for him to back off. He glared harshly, but seemingly complied. He caught him eyeing the Jupiter cannon core but he just backed off and crossed his arms. Letting her have full rein.

"We could have taken you out once or twice for good if we weren't working together. So, I'm gonna just end this." She said, cracking her neck loudly and rolling her shoulders. Her demonic form making the action all the more frightening.

"As if I'm gonna just believe that-" Totomaru began, but even one on one, they weren't going to let him talk or waste time. Her wings flapped harshly and she flew towards him.

He jumped to the side and created a ball of orange fire and hurled it at her. She sped up her flying to dodge it before flying after Totomaru again. He spared a glance towards the ice make wizard whom was mockingly yawning into his hand before grinning and pointing back at him.

He only took his eyes off Mirajane for just a moment, but she was fast. He'd just barely got his blade up in a position that forced her to call off her attack or lose her fist. She flew past him but she dug her tail into the ground and changed all her forward momentum into backwards momentum and her fist landed squarely in the turning Totomaru's side bone rattlingly hard.

He wanted to vomit from the way his stomach shook after that. Mirajane grabbed his sword arm and dug her claws painfully tight into his wrist before setting her feet. He didn't know what she was about to do, but he'd rather she not do it. He grit his teeth in preparation and set his forearm on fire feeling it burn both him and her hands.

Mirajane face clenched tight as her hands burned and she let out a growl more fit to come from a beast than a human, let alone a woman. She knew his hands would burn far faster than her demonic enhanced ones would. Her claws dug more fiercely into his wrist at the thought and she picked the man up before tossing him over her shoulder and into the ground as hard as she could. Watching in glee as it left a Totomaru shaped crevice in the hard-stone floor.

Her hands refused to let go of Totomaru's wrist and she dug her claws even deeper with a twisted grin. "Let's see you move my hands now you rat bastard."

Totomaru's eyes flew open in fear. He tried his hardest to make Mirajane move her hands but all it did was threaten to tear his arm apart. Then his arm was engulfed in an explosion.

A smoke cloud engulfed the two of them and Totomaru's sword spun through the air and landed at Gray's feet smoking and covered in cracks. He smirked as the man's scream echoed loudly in their room.

The smoke cleared and revealed a perfectly fine Mirajane and a screaming Totomaru clutching his ruined arm. It was still there but half of it was blackened from the self-inflicted burns and the other half was soaked in blackened cracked skin. It looked awful and Gray thought that maybe Mira had honestly taken it a bit too far, she always had a temper.

Totomaru clenched his destroyed arm in agony. Before he felt himself being picked up by his throat and started having trouble breathing. She forced him to stare into her eyes and for a moment he forgot he was fighting an actual human being. His breath stopped in his throat and in that moment, he learned why Mirajane was known as a demon.

"Bye. Bye." She said sweetly, closing her eyes doing a fake cutesy wave before hurling him at the Jupiter core as if he weighed nothing more than a baseball. He crashed into the core and cracked it before sliding down barely conscious.

"Oh Gray, be a sweetheart and end this." Mirajane said with a sickening grin on her face.

Despite himself, he felt a small smile form on his face as he formed a massive ship mounted cannon and aimed it squarely at the Jupiter core. Just barely resisting the temptation to act like a pirate. Barely. "Gladly but please don't call me sweetheart again. It creeps me out."

Totomaru's scream was drowned out by the massive cannon firing and crashing into the core before a powerful explosion rocked the room they were in. Debris rained down all around them. So, Gray made a giant awning made of ice so nothing fell on them. And then it was done, Phantom Lord's biggest weapon destroyed and laid in ruins, plus one of the Element Four were finished. He dissolved the awning and he and Mira came out of her **Satan Soul** before they grinned at each other.

"It's over, we stopped it." Gray tried to sound more hyped up, but his relief won over in the end.

"You're damn right we did. Nice job Gray, you didn't hold me back nearly as much as I thought you would." Mirajane said, lightly punching him in the shoulder.

Gray frowned. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds, you did way better than I thought you would." Mira explained almost a little defensively.

"I told you I'd catch up to you soon enough, I could have taken Totomaru just as well on my own." At that, he remembered Mira's crazy stunt that finished him off. "How are your hands Mira?"

Mirajane raised an eyebrow before checking her hands. "A little burnt but I'm way more durable than that moron. Otherwise they're fine."

He breathed a momentary sigh of relief. "Good, now let's go get everyone else and then storm this place."

Mira nodded in agreement before the building shook violently. "What the hell was that?" Before Gray could respond, they both heard a pair of voices coming through the Jupiter Cannon opening that they had gone through.

"Man, those two always have to make such an entrance, don't they?" One said.

"I definitely agree, those two have always been quite destructive. They also like to be the center of attention. Though you were the one to piss off the redhead." The other one said accusingly, though also with a tinge of mirth in his voice.

"Ha, that was funny though."

"Yes, I suppose it was."

"There was no suppose dumbass, it _was_ funny."

Gray was busy watching the entrance of the Jupiter Cannon as they walked and missed Mira's face turn from one of confusion into one of unbridled fury. After another moment, they came into view.

"Why are you here Sting?" Mirajane said, voice dripping with Venom.

"Hi Mira. Other guy." Sting said casually greeting both before turning back to Rogue. "So, should we start going down or should we go up?"

Rogue answered quickly. "Start by going as far down as we can. If we find him we'll just drag him around the place until we find Wendy."

Her blood started boiling, from both being disregarded and from seeing Sting Eucliffe's ugly fucking face again. "Answer my question! You infuriating gnat!"

Sting's playful expression he using to back and forth with Rogue was replaced by one of surprise. And Rogue's face quickly hid his amused smile into one of indifference.

"What was that for?" Sting asked, hurt in his voice. "It doesn't involve you so calm down Mira."

It took a moment for Gray to put two and two together. But he remembered who Sting was and Mira's encounter with him, as well as the man beside him and he suddenly felt much less confident than before. Totomaru was weak against him and Mira, but two dragons? That was much harder, and he could tell by their magic levels that Totomaru paled in comparison to them. It was almost like he could see their monster of a master standing right behind them.

"What do you mean it doesn't involve me dickless? You idiots being here involve me and my entire guild! So, start talking." Mira demanded harshly.

Sting's eye twitched in frustration. Before sighing in frustration. His expression formed into a faintly excited one. "We're here for our own reasons, if you don't get in our way then your fine. Hell, we might even take out the Element Four for you guys. But, Jose is a dead man if that matters to you."

The two nodded at each other before walking past them. Rogue not dropping his serious demeanor and Sting placing his hands behind his head and whistling a little tune. Both completely unintimidated by the clearly shaken fairies.

Gray felt a pit of anger form in his stomach. Not only at the two completely ignoring him, but at the fact they were _helping_ them. He hated it. "We don't need your fucking help. Get the hell out of our city."

Mira was surprised at gray's outburst, but she did feel the same.

Sting and rogue stopped and looked back, almost uncaring. "We're not helping you then. We still have business here so stay out of our way and we'll leave when we're done." Sting answered with a shrug.

"Or perhaps…" Rogue began with a small grin on his face, slowly mirrored by Sting. "You'd like to force us to leave?"

Before either of Mirajane or Gray could answer, the building's live speakers started up and Jose's voice began pouring through.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Why do I have to be here? I know Phantom is after me, but I want to fight with everybody!" Lucy pleaded with Loke, whom was leading them both to a secluded warehouse.

Loke felt guilty dragging her here against her will, but it was honestly for her best to stay out of it, hell, _he_ was a bit scared to be a part of that coming battle. But if Lucy was out of their sights, they couldn't just blow away the city. At least not if they actually intended to follow through and capture her. But he did promise to protect her, so he'd been with her inside this bunker for some time now. As much as he wouldn't have liked it.

"This is the best way to keep you safe. If Phantom wasn't after you specifically, then we'd both be out there fighting them head on. But if Phantom wants their twisted hands on you, then they'll have to pry you from our cold dead hands." Loke reassured her. He would have placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but with his fear of celestial wizards he couldn't do it.

Lucy was quiet for a moment. "I still feel like it's my fault. Everyone is out there fighting for me and I can't do anything about it. I hate it. I don't want to put this responsibility on them. I want to help."

Loke laughed softly. "You're a Fairy Tail wizard through and through, and you haven't even been here that long. It's almost like you were born to be here."

Lucy felt a small smile form on her face, but her earlier sentiment still stood. "But-" Before she could finish, the building they were hiding shook violently, Loke and Lucy were on their feet just as the door was kicked in, revealing one very angry Thor.

Thor cackled as he watched Loke and Lucy pale a little at his sight. "I'm in a really bad mood right now, that fucking moron Natsu has me furious. Give me Heartfilia, or I'm going to break every bone in your body. Then break every bone in her body while I make you watch."

Loke frowned in disapproval. "Such a rude way of addressing a lady. I must say I thoroughly disapprove." Fiddling with the rings on his fingers made them glow a faded yellow light. Lucy also pulled out her zodiac key. "I'll just have to teach you how to be a gentleman."

Thor just smiled from ear to ear.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Just as Erza and Elfman were about to jump in the hole the Dragons made in Phantom Lord's headquarters, Erza still fuming from Sting's comment. Jose's voice poured through the loud speaker in all its arrogance.

" _So you've stopped the Jupiter Cannon."_ He began, his arrogant tone belaying his fake pride in their accomplishment. _"That doesn't mean anything yet."_

He continued on with a small chuckle. _"We still have our ultimate weapon, the Abyss Break! Even if you were able to stop Jupiter just barely, you'll never be able to stop Abyss Break in a million years! HAHAHAHA!"_

His diabolical laughter was almost drowned out by Erza's own thoughts. _'No way, he can't be willing to destroy the whole town!'_

The Phantom headquarters began to shape shift slightly, now with the immensely sized being shifting its body to look like it was sitting down. Shortly afterward, a large magic circle formed around the guild. The small hand beginning to tick slowly around the circle as if it were a clock, signaling their doom.

"Elfman!" Erza began in a panic, gaining the attention of the man in question. "We have to stop this spell no matter what! Forget about the dragon's for now!"

Elfman grimaced at the thought but relented to her words. It was unsettling to see her worried like that. "It's unmanly to see you so riled up in the wrong kind of way. Let's get to it!"

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

After the building had stopped shaking and Jose had stopped talking, Gajeel put his hand on his chin and made a small thinking noise. Wendy noticed. "What is it? You know what he's doing?"

Gajeel was silent for a bit longer before addressing Wendy. "Yeah, in case you're wondering, Abyss Break is a spell more than strong enough to destroy the city. And from the sound of it-"

She cut him off completely flabbergasted. "What."

He sighed. "And it seems like even if we ran to the edge of the city as fast as we could we'd get wiped out along with the city before we made it out of the attack radius of Abyss Break."

She didn't know how to react, she just stared at him quizzically. "But, that's so boring." She began, almost personally offended. "That's such a bitch way to win, wipe them out with your own hands Jose you fucking pussy." The end of her insult was less angry and more just offended at Jose's boorish way of winning.

"I'm actually a little concerned now." His face took on a more serious expression. "If we don't find Natsu in this building, then more than likely he's being held somewhere in the city that we couldn't smell. Even he would get wiped out by something like Abyss Break."

She whistled in appreciation. "That's actually pretty bold of him to do something like that, without a top level guard Natsu would escape. They'd risk wiping out their own people for something like this."

"I know. It's almost commendable. Moronic that'd they think it'd work, but almost commendable none the less." Gajeel said, an amused tone in his voice before continuing their previous trek to the top of the robo-fortress.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"Where the hell did those two go?" Mirajane said angrily, looking rapidly around the changed core room. The two dragons had jumped into a pathway that was quickly turned inaccessible by the changing Phantom headquarters. When it finally settled down they had gone from path to path trying to find them.

Gray had been listening to her rant angrily for the last couple of minutes before he finally had the courage to speak. "Can we focus on them later? We have to deal with Phantom Lord first and I'd rather not kick a hornet's nest in the middle of a bee hive if I don't have to." It was more like kicking a dragon's nest than it was kicking a hornet's nest, but the analogy was sound.

It also didn't mean he _didn't_ want to kick the hornet's nest at all. Just not now.

She wanted to argue the point vehemently but sighed in bitter defeat. "Fine, we'll deal with them after."

He hesitated again and swallowed the apprehension in his throat. The abyss break's clock was ticking down and they needed to get a move on or else they might be too slow. "We need to split up, we don't have enough time to find all the element four like this-"

She cut him off instinctively and harshly turned him to face her and halting their walk. "Absolutely not! We still have three of the element four to deal with and since the dragons are all skulking around now I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

He was angry, and his scowl showed her in full earnest. "Would you stop this already?" He said bitterly.

"What?" She said defensively, unsure what got him so frizzled.

"Stop treating me like a child." He clarified, pointing to himself with his thumb and continuing. "I can handle myself Mira. I'm not weak. I'm getting tired of you thinking that."

She growled in her throat, too quietly for him to hear. "Not this again Gray. I told you time and time again that-"

This time he cut _her_ off. "I'm not strong enough. Yeah I've heard you say it a dozen times!" He snapped at her, with enough vitriol in it to stun her long enough for him to continue. "Every time I go to do something dangerous you hold my hand through the whole thing! I'm tired of it!"

She was taken aback far beyond words at his outburst, Gray was usually such a cool-headed person. Was he really this mad at her?

"You treat me like a baby whenever I face even the slightest of obstacles. It's like you don't even see how hard I've tried or how strong I've become. I don't need you to hold my hand, I never did!" He would normally bottle up his frustrations and take them out when he would occasionally train, but this particular grievance lit a fire in his gut like nothing else.

"That's not true!" She defended herself almost instinctively. "You're incredibly strong."

"If you believed that you wouldn't object whenever I try and take a S-Class mission with you or Erza." He countered.

"Those missions are too dangerous for you to go on. We've been over this!" She said, almost like a record player she looped right back around to him being too weak. Even if she didn't mean it.

He was tired of it. "You can't…" The words died in his throat and he looked off to the side crestfallen. He wanted to speak them so badly but didn't have the heart to hurt Mirajane like they would. No matter how much he wanted to say it.

"What?" She said angrily, prodding his chest. "You started this argument, don't hold your punches. What were you going to say?"

He ground his teeth in frustration, shaking his head and refusing to speak.

Her eye twitched in frustration. "I said speak."

' _Fine.'_

"You can't bring Lisanna back by babying me." He said stonily, staring her straight in her widening eyes.

In that instant, the air between them was colder than even Gray's ice make magic could ever make it.

She was quiet for a good bit. Staring still wide eyed at Gray, unable to speak. A storm of emotions swirling inside of her heart.

"Then go." She said quietly looking off to the side. "If you think you can do it then do it."

He knew he crossed a line, but in his heart, he knew it was a line he needed to cross. "I'm not gonna die Mira. I swear, just watch me."

He left right after, running down the hallway and eventually out of sight. Mirajane's fist clenched painfully tight before she punched a hole in the wall next to her, angry more at herself for still not getting over her sister's death.

"Is wanting to keep someone from getting hurt really that bad?' She said quietly, stepping through the hole in the wall and into the new room she didn't recognize.

"Well, I didn't expect to run into the great Demon of Fairy Tail, mademoiselle Mirajane in such a fashion." Said a voice to her right.

Still as upset as before she turned and gave Sol the livid glare that foretold the destruction she was to cause. "I guess that makes things just that more convenient for me." She said coldly, but not betraying the anger that had bubbled up inside of her.

"Non non non, it makes things far more convenient for me. Now I can eliminate a major threat much earlier than I intended!" Sol stated with glee.

"Honestly, you Element Four losers think way too highly of yourselves." She spat coldly, eyeing the debris around her feet begin to move.

" **Roche Concerto!"** Sol shouted. All the loose rocks around the two of them hurling themselves towards Mirajane at a great speed, gracefully dodging Sol himself as the rocks continued their line towards their original target.

"You'll need to do a lot better than that to beat me!" She shouted before using her **Satan Soul** transformation and raising both of her hands outwards and filling the room with an explosion that vaporized the oncoming rock barrage into nothing but dust. Obscuring her entire form in a great cloud of smoke.

Sol formed a singular bead of sweat at the sight. He wasn't sure why, but he felt that she was a tad angry.

The smoke faded and revealed a Mirajane that had had her temper pushed three steps too far and her demonic aura completely surrounded her, threatening to engulf the room itself. "You better be ready. Because I'm not gonna play even a little bit."

Her wings flapped twice before rushing towards Sol's position at breakneck speed low to the ground. In response, the man threw more rocks at her while simultaneously filling the space between them with sand to obscure the Demon's vision and sinking into the ground.

Lacking the time to destroy the rocks like last time, she grimaced and kicked off the ground and flapped her wings to hold her position in the air, arms already raised in preparation to destroy the rocks that had indeed changed course to pursue her. Her **evil explosion** did indeed destroy the rocks but clouded her vision completely.

Sensing danger, she quickly dropped to the floor and straight into a sandstorm that had swallowed the whole room. She cursed and covered her nose and mouth to avoid inhaling sand. But even so, it didn't do a damn thing about her crap visibility. She raised her free hand and let loose another explosion, but all it did was create more dust in a sandstorm and did nothing to reduce it.

She knew staying above a sandstorm like this in the air was most likely more dangerous than staying in it.

"Dammit!" She growled out in frustration, the sound of her voice muffled by her hand and her tail thumping angrily against the ground unconsciously. "Come out and fight me already you damn coward!"

Almost responding to her voice, the sands cleared slightly, but their ferocity picked up incredibly, the sands collided with her skin at an abhorrent speed and she could already feel her skin starting to get eroded by it. She yelled out in frustration again as she was forced back by the sandstorms ferocity. The larger and more damaging pieces of rock mixed into the storm were pelting her at a greater and more painful rate and she'd had enough.

' _Hmm.'_ Sol thought from his hiding spot. _'This isn't really getting anywhere is it?'_ And he was right, all he was currently accomplishing was keeping Mirajane stuck in one place and pissing her off.

But he was a little too slow in realizing this. Mirajane extended both of her hands outward as her darkness magic was forming at the palms of her hand; her body still being pelted by the sandstorm. The two orbs in her hands grew to the size of her head and she let an evil grin form on her face. **"Darkness Stream!"**

Frighteningly fast, dark tendrils with hands flew outwards from her palms and crashed into every surface they could find. Busting through walls, turning around and busting right back through them, smashing into pillars, behind rubble, everything. They found and destroyed everything in the room.

"Oh boy." Sol said worriedly. Hastily dodging each tendril of darkness as it shot out blindly. Sure, the hands were creating a ton more debris for him to manipulate, but he was too busy dodging for his life to manage the sandstorm effectively.

Suddenly, his movement backwards was interrupted by a soft, but incredibly sturdy, pillar that let out a quite frightening laughter for being a pillar. His face dropped as the realization set in.

"Found you…" Mirajane breathed out through her teeth, but in the moment, to Sol, they looked more like fangs.

She clenched her fists and dispelled the magic spell and delivered a near crippling haymaker to Sol's unprepared stomach, causing him to nearly hurl lunch from three weeks ago. Then another to his face, and then to his face again before bringing both of her hands up to and gathering her magic in her hands.

" **Evil explosion!"** The spell completely consumed the small suit wearing man and blew a hole in the nearby wall of Phantom Lord's building.

Mirajane was smirking ear to ear. "HA! You'll need to be a…what?"

At her feet there was no defeated Sol, but instead what looked like the remains of a statue. But before she could question anything. She heard his infuriating laughter from behind her, she turned around hastily and was staring down the barrel of a giant stone fist.

"Perhaps you should pay more attention to what you're destroying! **Platre Sonata!** " Sol shouted with glee.

How he'd dodged her attack she didn't know, but she didn't have any time to wonder before the fist blasted towards her. She had barely even a moment to throw up her hands in a vain attempt to block what was tantamount to stopping a building. The fist crashed into her palms and immediately she felt the veins in her arms bulge in the effort of stopping it. Her feet dug into the stone so powerfully that it left a trail where her feet tore the stone up.

She knew she was close to falling right out of the hole she herself had made, and she couldn't fly with this thing shoving her around. She was tired of being played around with. "You'll need…to do a lot better…than this…to stop…me!"

She pushed back harder than before, the effort making her muscles cry in agony, but it didn't stop it, only just barely to keep her from flying out the hole in the wall. For once, her crazy strength was being overpowered and she didn't know what to do. _'C'mon! Push god damn you! You're better than this! After all that talk of protecting Gray and I can't even protect myself, what the hell kind of crap was I spouting?'_

She continued to deride herself in her mind, her feet giving just that little bit more to the fist. _'No wonder he was getting so frustrated with me. Goddammit, I really should apologize. Get mad! Get mad mad mad mad!'_

She pooled over her memories, trying to find something that pissed her off more than she already was. She went through each memory, nothing pushing her anger past the boiling point. She'd been upset and lost her temper plenty of times throughout her time in Fairy Tail, like when Laxus was being Laxus, finding out Gray swiped an S-Class request without telling anybody, or when Erza and her got into their spats. None of them could push her past that point, because her truly becoming blind with rage almost never happened.

But then she was truck by a memory of when she came upon Erza after engaging Natsu and what Phantom Lord had done to Levy's team immediately after. She headbutt the fist in front of her out of anger towards herself. "To think I'd almost forgotten about that." She snarled at herself, feet digging into the ground harder and pushing the fist back a tad.

The action was not missed by Sol, who was now staring in shock. He was already putting as much into his spell that he could, and she was beginning to overpower it? Just how much power did this woman have?

Her foot smashed into the ground and pushed forward with everything she had, each muscle flexing and bulging close to the breaking point. But even so, she reeled her fist back and an orb of her magic appeared just in front of it, the veins in her neck and forehead bulging out far too much. "How am I gonna get back at that prick Natsu…"

Sol braced himself for the coming explosion. "If I can't pay you bastards back right here, right now, for what you did to Levy, Jet, and Droy!"

Her fist collided with the fist and her magic was squashed between it, completely engulfing the front part of it. Cracks began forming throughout the whole thing before it shattered explosively and sent shards flying everywhere. Most of which, Sol was just barely able to dodge.

"Sacre bleu." He stated in disbelief as he stared at the colossally strong woman before him, Sol could understand why she was so feared. Her magical aura had flared up around her and her labored breathing made her seem like a mad animal or an unyielding force of nature. Both of which made him take an unconscious step back.

"Get ready." She warned before flying after him much faster than before. He was too slow to react before she grabbed his leg mid-flight and hurled him into the ceiling.

He impacted the ceiling hard enough to leave an impression and stay inside it for a moment before beginning to fall. Mirajane had flown up to where he'd fall and began charging her spell. She drew her hands together and gathered an enormous amount of magic power between her hands, a ball of magic far more condensed than before and she smirked as Sol fell straight into place.

" **Soul Extinctor!"**

The all-consuming beam of magic that shot out from between Mirajane's hands completely swallowed the screeching Sol whole and her spell kept expanding outwards before it eventually swallowed the whole room while blasting a far more massive hole in the wall than what was just there.

She breathed a sigh of relief before flying back down to ground level and turning back into her normal self. She craned her neck just as Sol bounced off the ground and landed flat on his back.

She turned to face her downed adversary with a huge smirk on her face. "Aww, what's the matter little guy? All tuckered out from playing with me? Try again in ten years."

Just as she was about to leave, she heard a strained groaning noise from behind her. Upon turning around to investigate, she saw that Sol was slowly but surely standing back on his feet. "Unbelievable, you just don't know when to quit do you?"

She transformed back into her **Satan Soul** form and cracked her knuckles while she advanced on the downed mage. "I'm warning you, if you get back up I'm not gonna hold back."

"Ai. Should have known overpowering you with strength wasn't going to work." Sol said with a grunt of effort, just barely able to stand himself on his two shaky legs. "I shall no longer hold myself back either, let us see how well you do against these!"

His hand raised and a magical spell later and all around her specific spots in the ground began to twist and rise from the ground, as if it were creating something. "I wonder how well you'll do." Sol began, a small sneer on his bloodied face. "Against these!"

Mirajane tensed, expecting to be rushed by the creations that Sol had finished creating all around her. But all they did was stay standing with their back turned to her.

' _Those look familiar. What the hell is he planning?'_ No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't put what made those statues all around her so familiar, and something else was odd about them. The whole thing just made her feel too odd to attack first which was, genuinally, rare.

"I have in depth knowledge of every single member of Fairy Tail. And I have no qualms about using that knowledge to my advantage." Sol began, an evil grin slowly appearing on his face. "Even things that they dread, things they may still be _grieving_ over."

Almost instantaneously, her eyes shifted onto Sol's cackling visage before drifting back to the statues. An almost physically debilitating wave of nausea and anxiety hit her all at once as the statues all turned to face her at once. And the realization set in.

"You bastard." She said, venom thickly dousing the words. "You're going to make me fight statues of my sister?! Of Lisanna?!"

Sol began laughing openly. "Of course, mademoiselle, as they say 'A rose by any other name smells just as sweet' no?" I can see your knees quaking as the memories come back to haunt you already! How will you fare with combatting things with a likeness to your murdered sibling?"

" _Hey aren't those-"_

" _Quiet, you'll get us caught."_

"She was not murdered!" Mirajane shouted explosively, suddenly completely overcome by rage, only just barely able to keep those horrid memories from resurfacing. "If you think a bunch of fakes like this are going to stop me…" She spat in an incoherent rage, launching herself at the nearest statue with her fist reeled back more than ready to plow through the statue of her late sister. "Then you're dead wrong!"

"Why are we fake Mira?" 'She' said just as Mirajane plowed straight through the almost perfect recreation of her sister, voice and all.

The sister she loved with all her heart.

She turned and just barely was able to dodge the fake Lisanna's high kick. Blasting it apart with a much more contained and speedy **Evil Explosion**.

The sister she risked everything to protect.

She swore as three more made to move on her with a barrage of acrobatic kicks and jabs that slowly started to overwhelm her defenses just as she destroyed them with a quick smash with her tail. Turning to meet only waves more to replace what she'd destroyed. And catching several lung emptying punches into her abdomen.

The sister she still wept over each night.

A skull rattling punch completely caught her off guard. Turning around she quickly smashed the cause of it into pieces. Its cries echoed a hundred times over by its twins who quickly swarmed down on Mirajane again. "Shut up! You're not her!"

"Listen to their cries!" Sol shouted, almost in visible ecstasy at the steadily slowing down Mirajane and her suffering. "Do they not mirror your sister's last words?"

"I'LL KILL YOU!" She shouted as she tore into the statues more, continuing to steadily slow down.

" _She's losing."_

" _Wouldn't you?"_

The sister she failed.

"Shut up!" She shouted through her tears. Dropping to her knees, her fists clenching into tight fists as she half coiled into a ball as the memories of that day completely swallowed her mind. "Please…somebody make it stop…" It wasn't clear if she was begging Sol, herself, or some unknown third party. But it was clear what had happened once she had transformed back into her original form.

Mirajane had lost.

Sol smirked at the broken form of the once proud woman. "And with that, my victory is assured. Farewell Demon Mirajane. **Merci la Vie.** "

Her cries escalated as the effects of the spell ramped up her recollection of the dreaded day her sister died. Completely oblivious to the petrification happening to her body.

"She lost to Sol?" Rogue said with a bit of astonishment from his and Sting's hiding place.

"It wasn't if she could beat Sol." Sting explained sadly, beginning to stand from his spot. "It was if she could beat herself."

Rogue sighed, making a mental note to let Sol nowhere near Natsu. "Then she's finished."

Sting stared at her, his fist clenching. They knew without a doubt who she was now. He wanted to do something, but felt this strange pull that kept him from jumping in. He'd never felt this weird hesitance before, like an outside force was keeping him at bay, and he didn't know why. But before he could do anything, he was beaten to the punch.

"MIRA!" A large man with white hair shouted in absolute terror as he came upon Mirajane's state.

She just barely snapped out of her memory haze at the call of her name. She looked at the man who broke her out of her steady petrification with glazed eyes. "Elf…man?"

"Mira! Thank kami you're alive! I got here just in time. Don't worry, your brother is here now, and he won't let him get away with what he did to you!" Elfman said to the mentally exhausted woman in his arms.

She suddenly snapped out of her mental state if for but a moment. Grabbing him by the collar and bringing him closer she warned him as fast as she could. "Run Elfman! Run right now or else-"

But before she could warn her brother of the hell to come, the abomination around them continued for her.

"Elfman?" They all said in unison.

"What?" Elfman said in confusion, turning his head back and forth and fully realizing what situation he was in. Finally seeing all the replicas of his dead sister in all their horrifying glory.

Who he killed.

"How did you…" Elfman tried to say, still not completely grasping the situation as he was now standing protectively in front of Mirajane. Still unable to get his feet moving despite his anger towards the man who hurt his sister.

Almost ignoring his question, Sol answered. "Well, I wasn't expecting to get two fairies with one trick. But I'll let it slide for now, so I can bring anguish to you!"

The twisted grin on Sol's face just served to ignite Elfman's protective anger even more. "What the hell did you do to Mira?!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Sol began mockingly, that pitying laughter echoing across the room. "I made her relive the moment where you killed your sister. How many times though, I'm not sure exactly."

"If that's true." Sting began, now surprisingly grim. "Then maybe Lisanna might be better off not coming back here again."

Rogue looked at him pointedly, he wanted to ask what he meant, but he continued anyway. "The next time she gets in an accident, we won't find her again."

It all clicked in his head so quickly and vividly that Elfman almost dropped to his knees. Just the thought of going through what she did was almost able to take all the fight right out of him. Almost.

His legs quaked at the statues all around him that kept kicking at his barriers. Just her being there and knowing what his sister had gone through was already tearing away at him. But he couldn't fail now, not now. He couldn't fail her. Not again.

He raised his right arm high as it glowed brightly, very similarly to the way his sister glowed before turning into her **Satan Soul** , and when the glow ceased, Elfman now had an arm belonging to a beast that was at least twice his normal arm size.

"Beast Arm Elfman, correct?" Sol asked half interested, he really wanted to get back on track with torturing Mirajane, but he would play with her brother a little. "Hopefully you can at least scream enough to entertain me more than she could."

That pushed Elfman's temper back to the extreme and he poised to attack. But in his way stood all the copies of his sister. He swore and hesitated for just a moment before charging straight at them with a ferocious battle cry.

Mirajane could already see him dropping from the stress. "Elfman don't!"

Sol laughed quietly to himself. "Fool."

Sting and Rogue shook their heads in disappointment.

But to everyone's shock, Elfman went below the fist of the first statue and hastily climbed atop and leaped off its shoulder. The statue merely stumbling from the act.

' _I can just barely keep myself together.'_ Elfman thought in a panic. _'But as long as Mira needs me, then I won't fail to protect her like I failed last time.'_

One of the statues hurriedly jumped after him.

' _If he really read sis's memories. Then this thing…'_

He was able to just dodge the sharp kick from the statue and slip behind her. He placed both of his feet on her back and kicked off her and launched himself squarely at the stunned Sol.

' _Would fight just like her!'_

"Man!" Elfman screamed as his beast arm collided with Sol's face with a crushing force. Sending the small man tumbling down and a huge cloud of dust formed as he stared him down.

Sting and rogue were completely floored. "It almost looked like those statues-"

"-helped him." Mirajane stated, completely taken aback at her brother's choice to get past the statues of their sister.

"You better get back up." Elfman began, his breathing even and measured, betraying his current mental state. "Because I'm not done making you pay for what you did to my family."

Sol stood back up on his quivering legs. Barely able to keep himself conscious as he stared down the Strauss sibling. _'How am I not able to break him? He shouldn't be able to do all of that with what I'm doing to him-"_

Sol was observing his foe heavily, screaming in his head at his inability to break the man before him. Until he saw it. Elfman may look calm and composed, but that was merely a front. He could see in the defensive posture he was standing, the way his hand remained shakily at his side. He saw through it. He saw through it all.

Elfman was even worse off then his sister. He just needed that last little push.

"How endearing." Sol began. "Your love for your sister is letting you pretend you're not broken on the inside. I see now. If you break even one of these statues, you'll lose. Won't you?"

Elfman growled in his throat, frustrated he'd been found out so quickly. "Who cares, I'll let them beat me to a pulp before I break them!" He yelled furiously before charging Sol again, all the statues behind him letting him focus completely on the scrawny man before him.

Sol laughed with a pained effort. "Let's see how well you deal with this then!"

Just before Elfman could finish the fight a statue of himself formed before him. Elfman stopped his charge and readied himself for a battle, but instead, the statue smirked and steadily transformed and grew until it dwarfed him in size, taking the very form of the beast that damned them.

He was stuck in place for a moment, before the beast charged. He braced for an eventual attack from the beast as best he could, but it never came. Instead it ran right past him into the sea of Lisanna statues. Tearing them apart.

Elfman stared in horror as the past, quite literally, replayed before his eyes in excess. His teeth clenched painfully tight as he heard the destruction going on behind him. Knowing that what was happening behind him wasn't real, he focused on the weak Sol before him and took a couple of steps forward. He could hear all of the statues crying out his name.

' _Someone like you…'_ Sol thought evilly as he watched Elfman's steps grind to an absolute halt. _'Would protect them. No matter what.'_

He roared in fury as he turned from Sol to charge the massive beast that was rampaging through the statues. Colliding with its side with a massive tackle and stumbling the great creature. The beast responded by attempting to slam its giant arm down on Elfman's head, who jumped to the side to avoid it. But his reward for his valiant behavior was paid for as soon as the statues of his sister grabbed him and held him in place for the beast to pummel him.

"Elfman!"

Sting felt his anger start to boil up. "What the hell is he doing? Did he just forget those statues aren't on his side?"

Rogue responded by merely shrugging his shoulders.

Elfman's beaten body was thrown by the beast's attack and he rolled to a stop in front of his sobbing sister. His eyes were heavy and his body bloodied, but he couldn't stare his sister in the face after he still hadn't saved her yet.

"I'm sorry I'm too weak." Elfman apologized faintly, just barely able to lift himself off the ground with his arms. "If I was just better at controlling myself after I transform…then we wouldn't be here."

Sting's eyes widened in realization, his anger climbing. _'He can transform? He's too fucking scared?'_

Mirajane could barely see through her tears. She shook her head violently as Elfman finally got to his feet and planted himself firmly "It's not your fault Elfman. Please just run away."

"What kind of little brother would I be…" He began, his breathing labored but his mind set. "…if I can't protect the family I have left?"

"Au revoir Fairy Tail!" Sol shouted, a completely mad grin on his face as all of his creations charged the down siblings.

Just before they reached Elfman and Mirajane a huge magic spike was felt throughout the room. All three of the fighters turned to its source and saw a livid Sting Eucliffe staring them all down. He sneered violently towards the two siblings before smashing the pillar he was nearby into dust.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sting spat at him furiously. Missing the panicked gaze that Sol was sending his way.

' _Took you long enough to pop your top.'_ Rogue thought idly, choosing to observe Sting's rare temper. It really was rare to see him really pop like he does.

"Why are you-" Elfman began tiredly, before Sting walked up and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down to his level to stare him in the eye.

"'What the hell kind of brother?' I'll tell you what type of brother you are, garbage!" Sting screeched in his face, his breathing heavy and dripping with malice.

But before Elfman could even recoil at the words, Sting continued. "You aren't a shitty brother because you killed your sister in a freak accident when you lost control of yourself. No, no you're a shitty brother because of what you're doing right here right now!"

"You're letting your god damn fears keep you from saving the life of the only sister you've got left! You're a shitty brother because you're using Lisanna's death as an excuse to not grow!" Sting continued to rail into the stunned man.

"How dare you talk to him like that!" Mirajane began, almost as furious as Sting currently was, but a single piercing glare sent her way was enough to keep her in place.

"What kind of brother and sister leave such pathetic sacks for her to watch over? What the hell do you think she's feeling as she watches what's left of her family tear itself apart?" He continued on even as his insults became personal.

"What would you do if Mira was about to die huh?"

"I'd protect her to my dying breath! With every fiber of my being!" Elfman spat back, grabbing Sting by his own collar and punching him across the jaw.

It was silent after that as Elfman fumed at the words Sting berated him with. As truthful as they were.

Sting let go of Elfman's collar and rubbed his struck jaw before staring Elfman in the face with a cocky smirk. "What's stopping you from doing that right now?"

Elfman went to deride him for how wrong he was, but was silent as the words truly began to sink in. "Fear."

Sting exhaled pointedly through his nose before turning around and walking away. "What kind of brother can't protect his family because he's scared?"

"Elfman he's wrong! He doesn't understand you or what happened-" Mirajane quickly tried to comfort her brother before Sting cut her off.

"I understand perfectly." He began. "He's too scared he's gonna lose himself again. Scared it won't be enough. Scared he'll lose all he has left. Well guess what?"

"You will lose all you have left if you don't do anything now."

He walked back to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and watched the two intently. "Go ahead and attack Sol, I don't care. They just pissed me off. Walking around pretending they really care about family."

' _Ahh. That's what set it off. Now it makes sense.'_ Rogue thought quietly as he stared at the Strauss siblings as well. Knowing now what set Sting's temper off. Nothing really got him angry besides hypocrisy.

Elfman's fist clenched painfully tight as he thought. He thought of everything about himself that he thought was true before this, he thought about Sting's words and what he meant by them, and he thought about Lisanna and Mirajane. His two sisters that he would do anything for. Anything to protect.

He almost punched himself in the face.

Who gives a damn about sanity?

Elfman turned violently towards the statues of Lisanna and the beast form of himself that was the cause of all of it. Done caring that all his inspiration was given to him by a criminal he hated. "I'll show you what happens when you mess with my family, and you can tell everyone across the country what happens when they do!"

A magic circle appeared below his feet as his magic swelled to crazy new heights and his body began glowing.

" **Beast Soul:** **Full Body Take Over!"**

Incredibly, Elfman's body transformed into the very same beast that Sol had just created. But his fur red, his abdominal fur green and prominent, two large yellow spikes on his shoulders and some on his head. But most importantly, he was the one in control. No longer the one controlled by his past.

Mirajane stared in complete shock. Amazed her brother had been able to conquer his demons as well as perfect his magic. Conquering her demon being something even she had been unable to do. "Elfman…"

As she was enraptured in the sight of Elfman clashing with his stone beast doppelganger. Sting snapped her out of her thoughts. "What the hell are you waiting for? Get in there and watch your bros back."

She stared at him in minor annoyance before shaking her head violently and smacking herself in the face. As Elfman's big sister, he should be able to rely on her. And here she was breaking into hysterics in the middle of a fight. She gave Sting one more heated glare before focusing her attention back on Elfman who was beginning to get pushed back by all the stone copies. "I'm not doing this because you told me to."

He watched her transform and fly off to help her brother. "Obviously."

Elfman was struggling to gain ground against his stone copy. It was matching him blow for blow, but that all changed when his sister, complete in her **Satan Soul** form, smash into the side of the stone beast with the force of a god. "Elfman! Go! Finish this!" She then proceeded to beat the stone beast into pieces.

He didn't need another tip.

He ran full steam, crushing all of the fake Lisanna's beneath his feet until he was directly in front of the cowering Sol. "Wait please! I'll turn over a new leaf! I swear! Just please don't hurt me!"

Elfman instead stared him down from his transformed state and began raining down blows that shook the room. "Take the pain of the Strauss family that you found so entertaining!"

And that was it.

When Elfman's beating had ceased all the stone statues crumbled apart and Sol lied completely unconscious at the center of his crater. Elfman slipped back into his regular form after he was sure Sol was defeated and gave an exhausted thumbs up to his sister before collapsing from exhaustion. But Mirajane was there to catch him.

"You did good Elfman. I couldn't have asked for better." She said, giving her brother the comforting hug he needed then.

"I'm sorry I had to take that form to get us out of that mess." He apologized, returning the hug and regaining enough of his strength to stand on his own legs.

"Don't be. But we still have stuff to do. So, buckle up." She said with a smile.

Sting watched the two siblings for a moment before leaving to meet back up with Rogue. Who quipped when he came back. "So, 'what kind of brother are you?' huh?"

"Oh shut up."

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Jose hated to say it, but it needed to be done. "God damn fairies."

He brought the remaining members of the Element Four, that being Aria and Juvia, as well as Thor and Odin, into a call through a lacrima.

"Change of plans, Juvia I want you to increase the guard around Dragneel's room and I want Thor and Odin to move there as well, Aria you will move to protect Heartfilia. All the fairies and dragons are moving in small groups. If they go for him, crush them without mercy am I understood?"

" _Yes, master."_ They all said in unison, but just before they all cut communications Aria's section was interrupted.

" _Hey, are you talking to Jose over there?"_ Came a young girl's voice through the lacrima.

" _That's pretty neato."_ Came another, much deeper male voice, most likely her companion.

" _I have visitors master. I will deal with these two before acting on your orders."_ Aria commented as the two voices began speaking again.

" _If that is Jose, tell him he's a dead man once I get Natsu on his feet again!"_

Then Aria's communication signal went dark, and as much as Jose outwardly showed he wasn't concerned. He personally began his trek to Aria's location to make sure he didn't get killed.

He'd admit that the dragon's were more of a danger than Fairy Tail, just not out loud.

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

Erza was completely taken aback at what was before her. Here, Aria, of the element four, left on the verge of death, and not a step farther.

"Who could have done this to Aria so fast?" She said out of surprise.

She knew well of Aria's great strength and she was hot on the tail of two of the dragons, but then they just disappeared. She heard the sounds of battle, followed, and found nothing here except a defeated and nearly dead member of Phantom.

She swallowed her building fears. "Are the individual members of Dragon's Keep so powerful they can do away with someone of Aria's level in minutes?"

But her thoughts were interrupted as two voices suddenly piped up from right behind her. "Admiring Wendy's work huh? Yeah, she's got a real art for putting people on death's door."

Erza jumped instinctually away from the voices as the familiar and infuriating visages of Sting Eucliffe, who was eyeing the downed Aria, and Rogue Cheney who was glaring daggers at her, snuck up behind her without her suspecting even a thing.

Rogue began, not even attempting to hide his contempt for the woman in front of him. "From what we hear, you're the one who blocked the Jupiter blast."

Erza was surprised but managed to keep herself from lashing out in anger. "Why does that matter? Are you interested in testing your strength against me?"

"Nah, we ain't doing that." Sting began, transferring his gaze from Aria to the red headed knight. "It's just anyone who's dumb enough to try that…"

His gaze suddenly became piercing and Erza felt the pressure of both their magic powers weighing down on her. "…is the only one who'd be dumb enough to steal Natsu's ring."

Her eyes widened in fear.

' _Oh no.'_

* * *

XXXXX

* * *

"That little stunt you pulled, almost got me there. You know that?" Gajeel began, his breathing ragged after fighting off Juvia, the thunder brothers, and Gray all at once. With no shortage of wounds to show his intense four on one battle, he still had a surprising amount of strength left for what he looked like. If the blade of iron he'd transformed his hand into and was pointing threateningly towards Gray's chest was any indication.

"Fuck you!" Gray swore at him, doing his best to pry himself out of the iron grip Gajeel had put him in. As exhausted as he was, that seemed almost impossible.

"I really would like to fight you one on one at full strength. And I don't want any scraps of you that'll be left after trying to get through my comrades next week. I want you first, you got that?" Gajeel still had a confident smirk on his face, that Gray had done his damned best to wipe off.

"That's fine by me! Next time I'll wipe you out!" Gray vehemently claimed.

"Good, now piss off. Your blond friend is upstairs, so get going." Gajeel said before violently tossing Gray to the floor.

But before either of them could move afterwards, the door that Gajeel had protected open to show the person Gray was still trying to figure out a way to catch up to, wearing bandages wrapped around his chest and a couple adorning his head. With his comrade Wendy Marvel standing beside him.

There stood Natsu Dragneel; in all his terrifying glory. Looking very, very mad.

* * *

Omake The Application Process I:

 _Time: Some vague ass time._

 **This week's draws are: Sting and Wendy!**

"God damn I hate the first of the month." Sting complained loudly. His partner, Wendy, sitting beside him at the table, with a simple cloth over it. Just as bored.

"I can't believe we lost the draw this week. This is bull honkey." Wendy echoed her friend's thoughts almost word for word. Just using different words. The image of Natsu, Rogue, and Gajeel laughing as they were the ones stuck with doing the worst money maker in history.

"Why do we always have to chew through these damn reject wannabe slayers every month." Sting said angrily, grabbing the stack of papers that had the names of way too many people.

"I hate the draw." Wendy growled out in anger.

For context, every first of march two people would get to be saddled with the applications to joining Dragon's Keep. Those two are decided by the mystical draw. No one knows how it works.

"Whatever let's do this."

The first person to come out was a man named Jonathan, who looked like the most plain looking motherfucker you could imagine. Wendy's word's not mine.

"Alright Jonathan, what's your dragon slaying ability?" Sting began, unbelievably bored and fiddling with the tips of Wendy's pigtail, she being bored enough to permit it.

"I shoot bees!" Jonathan hastily replied.

"Oh my fucking god." Wendy droned out by smacking her face onto the table and rolling around on it in agony.

Sting sighed loudly and reached under the table. "Draw a jar of bees."

He then pulled his hand out from under the table and a very angry jar of bees in Sting's hand was quickly tossed into the panicking hands of Jonathan. Who was very confused on what to do with them.

"What do I do?" He asked curiously.

"Eat them."

After Jonathan was taken to the hospital the next guy came by. "Okay, Chilled…" Wendy began before mumbling to herself. "If your power has anything to do with ice I'm breaking your nose."

"What's your power?" She finished. Eyeing the man named Chilled like a hawk.

"I control lava." He stated quickly.

"Alright you have my attention." Her fears of another stupid name power were alleviated for the time being. People who thought they were funny or badass and having a power related to their name was so common it was maddening.

"And ice."

After Chilled was also taken to the hospital, and Wendy given a powerful sedative, which didn't really work. The third one came out. Named Leroy. Who's power was yelling.

"We're going to be here all day!" Wendy sobbed violently. Wishing something would just end her suffering on the spot.

* * *

 **A/N: And that does it, the first time in a long while I know but relax, the story ain't dead. Quick question, would you guys want the chapter sizes slimmed down a bit to make them more frequent, or stay as they are because the update schedule is coming back on track I swear this time.**

 **I have everything under control.**

 ***Keyboard on brand new laptop breaks again.***

 **Except that part.**


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